We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode 11: The Voynich Manuscript Decoded - Have We Finally Solved the Most Mysterious Book in the World?

11: The Voynich Manuscript Decoded - Have We Finally Solved the Most Mysterious Book in the World?

2022/6/26
logo of podcast The Why Files: Operation Podcast

The Why Files: Operation Podcast

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
主持人
专注于电动车和能源领域的播客主持人和内容创作者。
Topics
主持人:沃尼奇手稿,一本长久以来困扰学界、密码学家、物理学家和计算机科学家的神秘书籍,其内容和语言都极具挑战性。尽管许多专家尝试解读,包括图灵在内,但都未能成功。手稿包含奇特的植物图画、占星符号和大量的裸体女性图像,被分为草药、占星、药理和生物四个部分。其中,占星部分包含已知的星座,但略有偏差;沐浴部分则包含大量的裸体女性在各种形状的浴缸中的图像,是手稿中最著名也是最令人费解的部分。手稿的语言从左到右书写,包含20到25个不同的字母,但其组合方式至今未被破解。关于手稿的起源,存在多种理论,包括外星人理论,认为手稿可能由外星访客创作。最近,德国埃及学家Rainer Hanegg声称已破译手稿,认为其语言基于希伯来语,并翻译了一些单词和句子。然而,这一说法受到了专家的质疑,认为其在语言上做了很多改动。事实上,过去几十年里,已经有至少60种关于沃尼奇手稿的解读被发表,但都被证实是错误的。其他解读尝试,例如将手稿解读为失传语言或女性健康手册,也未能获得成功。沃尼奇手稿的历史可以追溯到15世纪的意大利北部,曾被神圣罗马帝国皇帝鲁道夫二世拥有。一些人认为沃尼奇本人创作了这部手稿,但碳定年法证明了这一理论的错误。目前,最合理的理论可能是中世纪骗子爱德华·凯利对鲁道夫皇帝的一个骗局。即使是最好的密码学家也无法破译沃尼奇手稿,其神秘性依然吸引着人们的关注。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The Voynich Manuscript is a 240-page medieval codex written in an indecipherable language, filled with bizarre drawings of strange plants, astrological symbols, and naked women. It has defied classification and comprehension for centuries.

Shownotes Transcript

For 600 years the Voynich Manuscript has stumped scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists. Now, a researcher in Germany has claimed to have finally decoded the most mysterious book in the world.  

The Voynich Manuscript is a 240-page medieval codex written in an indecipherable language, full of bizarre drawings of strange plants, astrological symbols and... lots of... naked women.  

The Voynich Manuscript defies classification and has also defied comprehension. Cryptologists, FBI operatives, respected medievalists, mathematic and scientific scholars, skilled linguists... they've all been left stumped. Even Alan Turing took a crack at it and came up short.  

It's written from left to right and although it's never been "officially" deciphered, there's definitely a structure to it. Researchers have concluded that the language has 20 to 25 distinct letters but nobody has been able to figure out how the letters fit together.   

According to cryptanalyst Elizabeth Friedman in 1962, anyone who attempts to translate it is "doomed to utter frustration."  

Let's find out why.


Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support)