The Speculist: The Document is a Fake

No, not one of those documents.

We're talking about the mysterious Voynich Manuscript. Wired Magazine reports that it is not an ancient alchemical treatise, nor a thought experiment from Leonardo da Vinci, nor a relic from an alternate universe. (Well, I guess they can't completely rule that last one out, but Occam's Razor and all that.)

The document is gibberish. It's a very old hoax. And, based on the years spent trying to decipher it, I'd say one of the most successful hoaxes of all time.

Read the Wired article to learn why the document may have been created in the first place, how you can create your own undecipherable document, and, interestingly enough, how the techniques used to prove that Voynich is a fake just might help lead to a cure for Alzheimer's. Fake documents are powerful, aren't they? Bringing down TV networks, curing diseases...what's next?

(via GeekPress)

Comments

This verifier method looks very important.

What if these methods were used within A.I. research. What if the verifier method could itself be computerized and then applied to existing expert systems?

You remember that moment in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where the computer tech said, "we're taking over this conversation...now."

http://www.sciflicks.com/close_encounters/sounds.html

It would be kind of like that.

Posted by: Stephen Gordon | September 22, 2004 07:43 AM