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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Greg Kondrak, a computer scientist from University of Alberta's AI lab, claims to have begun decoding the mystery behind the unknown text with his novel algorithm, CTVNews reported.
[...] It is believed that the manuscript is somehow related to women's health but there is no solid clue, according to the report. People have made wild guesses regarding the code, with at least eight making firm claims – only to be debunked later on.
Kondark, however, took a different approach towards solving the problem – artificial intelligence. "Once you see it, once you find out the mystery, this is a natural human tendency to solve the puzzle," the computer scientist told CTVNews. "I was intrigued and thought I could contribute something new."
He and his co-author Bradley Hauer combined novel AI algorithms with statistical procedures to identify and translate the language. The approach, which had been used to translate United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 380 languages, came in handy and suggested the language was Hebrew, albeit with critical tweaks.
They found that the letters in every word had been reordered and the vowels were dropped in the code. The first complete sentence which the AI decrypted read, "She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people." One section of the text carries words that translate into "farmer", "light", "air", and "fire".
The translated line could be the starting of something big but it is a long way to go for Kondark, who stresses on the need of complementary human assistance. However, it is not clear how accurate the translation really is.
"Somebody with very good knowledge of Hebrew and who's a historian at the same time could take this evidence and follow this kind of clue," he said while highlighting the need of someone who could make sense of the translated text.
For those who may not be familiar with the manuscript, see Voynich Manuscript at Wikipedia, or read it yourself at archive.org (Javascript required).
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:18PM (6 children)
He wouldn't be the first, yet it remains untranslated.
Um, citation needed? believed by whom? I sort of think it's about better living through plant-based chemical supplements in association with woo-woo astrology thinking, just judging by flipping through the thing, and I am not aware of any more responsible opinion despite the low, low bar that sets.
This is why claims are merely annoying background noise; a headline akin to "So-and-so finally decyphers Voynich Manuscript; It's about how Aliens started the History Channel" would be newsworthy.
But, AI==for nerds, I get it. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:29PM (2 children)
and he'snt even done! don't we usually wait until pet projects like that net something?? or is there some cool code i missed?
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:40PM (1 child)
Sure, the Voynich code. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:47PM
Well, even that is unproven and very much up in the air.
It could well be "The Voynich set of pictures and cool handwriting-looking meaningless drawings."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:46PM
It just is. You don't understand!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @05:51PM (1 child)
Well, there's lots of images of naked women. So it's either about women's health or a tedious tome of porn.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ledow on Sunday January 28 2018, @09:39PM
If you bought a catalogue of greek statues, it would also be have lots of images of naked women.
Doesn't mean it has anything to do with women's health, or porn for that matter.
Hey, it's almost like NOBODY knows what it's really about, isn't it?