Steve Ekwall's Voynich Manuscript "Folding Key"

[alienbaroque]

Reminds me a little of the Rubix watch?v=ocVey44-wEI Maybe that will inspire you.

AB

[itsabomberscope]

Superb stuff!

[SpacedTime]

I dont get what this guy Steve has actually done, other than produce a folded piece of paper that he doesnt know what to do with

[nicholaspelling]

The 17 letter repeated sequence is an interesting pattern, but Voynich researchers have raked over this for years. As for me, I'm pretty sure it's an 18-letter pattern that was subsequently adapted to look like a 17-letter pattern... but that's another story. :-)

As for Kircher: though he was sent the VMs, there were probably twenty owners before him who were no less mystified. Its history goes back to the mid-15th century, without much doubt.

[MambaMedic]

Hey Nick I came across the document tonight, as everyone else has and will do, I decided to have a shot at looking for patterns etc. I found one. I found what I believe is the decipher key to a 17 letter alphabet. Also I found a connection to Kircher by spotting a pattern and then googling Kircher and seeing he was connected to the VM. The message was either BY or for FOR Kircher for sure. I am 2hrs old in the world of deciphering, 4give me if im telling you old news lol. Interesting indeed.

[nicholaspelling]

foow! :-)

[1xawa1]

WOW

With this key i can communicate with aliens, travel in time, read peoples minds and teach my dog to walk bakwards.

[timcraig3]

It's a cook book!

[ZLATODEJ]

Voynich manuscript is written and encryoted in the Czech language. Author manuscript czech alchemist 15th century JOHN of LAZY.

Real name manuscript = Gold Mud ( Zlato bláto) 1454.

info : Zlatoděj J.T.

[LLNWonderland]

@nicholaspelling. Just curious about your opinion... What do you think of the theory that John Dee created the manuscript, and sold it to cryptography-loving Rudolph II, because Dee was hard up for money? I'd rather believe that's not true, but do you know of any facts about the manuscript that would help refute this theory, besides that it's extremely complicated and would be difficult to fabricate?

[nicholaspelling]

@LLNWonderland Not a hope, the VMs was from 150 years earlier. :-)

[aSkepticalTruth]

So... what is the foldy piece of paper actually supposed to do...? If you're able to decode the manuscript with it, then decode the bloody manuscript already!

I don't see what all the fuss is about. At 1:12 when you flip it over, you're just repeating the same steps you *just did* backwards. DURP

I must be missing something here. Why the hell would you put this in your book?

[nicholaspelling]

@aSkepticalTruth The whole point was that Steve Ekwall suggested a whole set of specific cryptographic mechanisms (including the folding key) several years before anybody else really perceived that Voynichese was that kind of a problem.

The folding sequence doesn't go backwards, it goes through all 8 states in order to get back to the first one - watch it again, or better still make one for yourself and try it out in your own hands.

[FredericaBimble]

It's one of those puzzles that you do in school where you ask your friend to pick a number and then you go through the opening and closing of it until you get to the end and it tells you that you'll "marry the fat kid" at your school.... or, something like that.

This guy is caught up with "how" when what we really need to know is: does the thing work or not?!

[TaiwanSCW]

Nice, but I really don't think this is a code. Did you know NSA often go to look at the original manuscript? I may be the diary of an alien species. This is a language, not a code. I know code and this aint it. (below is my review in real code)

¼ÊÖÆÕÖâ¼àÆÔÍÚÚÅÝÏÕÕÛÊÜÌÕÖÊæ×Ô­ÄâÅÓ¥×ÅÚÝÖÌÜÐê¼´´ÝÇçÆÜÚÐÕâÚÐâÌ­ÂçâÉØÝÓÜÈ×ÏÔÍÎÔÏãÔÖÓ×Ñç ªÎÏÚÃÓçÉÓ×ÊÏÓìÝÇÂÜÔÍ×ÆááÑØÄ×Ææ­µÛÊáÜÔÂÍÏÏÚÖÏÈØÏâÕÂÄÝÅتÌÜÐêÑЭ×ÆÂáÅÕÛÊáÔÊÜÕÊâ}

[nicholaspelling]

@TaiwanSCW Thanks for the comments. I'd completely agree that it's not the kind of code or cipher that modern cryptologists are looking for, but given that history very rarely travels in a single "progressive" straight line, I suspect that the problem lies not too far from the mainstream... but in a way which subtly defies our tools. Ultimately, statistics can only measure conformance to our expectations... but what if our expectations are wrong? Do we really need to look to other planets here?

[nicholaspelling]

@TaiwanSCW By the way, is there a Taiwanese Voynich research community at all? Just asking! :-)

[mariek12]

no point whatsoever

[Murchadha215]

I'd kill myself ifi I got to know that this manuscript is meaningless and was written by an alchehemist trying to pull future generations' hair...

[mrbadassish]

Lookie here pal, there is about as much genius to folding a peice of paper into 9 equal sized rectangles as there is to an individual who knows how to blow up a balloon.

[nicholaspelling]

@mrbadassish I bow to your superior knowledge and rhetoric. Thanks for sharing!

[kroovyandcal]

i started to read "history is wrong" by eric von danicher. it was about the voynich manuscript. i quickly realized the author was an idiot that could not tell the book of encoch, along with the ecuadorian indians, believed in a 7 month calendar and whoever illustrated the voynich manuscript believed in a 12 month calendar. these two different calendars are not reconcilable. He made all his preposterous leaps in "similarities" between these three things.

[zen4men]

All consciousness is linked, because there is only The One Mind, TOM experiences itself, and teaches the parts of itself about itself. I lived with a channeller, and have personal experience of meeting spirit guides over a two year period. So it is is perfectly possible that information can become available in this way.

[ggmull]

wow you can fold paper

[tehkao]

Has this "key" actually decoded anything? I don't understand the point of all the hoopla.

[nicholaspelling]

@tehkao It was proposed by a non-cryptographer - the interesting thing is that even though Steve Ekwall knows extremely little about Renaissance history, he accompanied his proposed folding key description with a lot of curiously insightful stuff, much of which turned out to be true several years later. So... might his folding key also turn out to be true? It's possible - which alone is quite remarkable, as you can shoot down nearly all proposed Voynich theories in a matter of seconds.

[MultiUniv3rsal]

@nicholaspelling Don't you think the glossolalia idea would be accepted in the absence of others? I personally would bet my chips on the chance it was contrived for the means to be sold as a 'mystical book' from some outlandish dead culture, and wouldn't that king be guilty as the gullible sap that bought it?

[nicholaspelling]

@MultiUniv3rsal - rather than an "absence", there's actually a cornucopia of other ideas to choose from, and glossolalia comes far down that list. The big problem with the "hoax-to-fool-Emperor-Rudolph" theory is that the vellum has been radiocarbon dated to roughly 150 years earlier (and it was apparently written on not long after having been prepared).

[MultiUniv3rsal]

@nicholaspelling Perhaps Emperor Rudolph was just one in a series of owners who swore by the books 'mystical powers' or such.

I mean, I'm just in full speculation mode, I hate and love these kinds of mysteries.

[sarabuffalo1]

So how does the folding key help decipher the manuscript?

[nicholaspelling]

OK, it's true that Steve Ekwall's "folding key" description doesn't answer the question. However, what is extremely unusual about it (as a Voynich theory) is that (a) it makes historical sense, and (b) you can't actually shoot it down in flames in 10 seconds flat. Steve Ekwall plainly doesn't know anything about Quattrocento history... so where did all this come from? That's the mystery...

[Tharaendor]

Hello. I've seen a few words in this manuscript where there are, know what I mean. My problem is that in the pictures I have not gone down well appreciate the characters.

Can anyone give me pages of high resolution?.

I repeat that what they mean those words in a language even if they do not know.

[nicholaspelling]

Actually, what is remarkable is that Steve Ekwall is proposing a novel piece of cryptographic machine unknown to the literature, yet which would fit the very precise historical time-frame (1450-1500) which has only become known in the years since.

Seeing it merely as a piece of paper is somewhat missing the point - it's a cryptographic state machine, nearly 500 years before Enigma and its modern ilk.

[taveren93hgk]

that doesnt explain how this paper decrypts anything.

[taveren93hgk]

this video clearly shows how to build the decoder key.

now where is the explanation of how this key actually decodes ANYTHING?

[orkasteez]

i agree this book is hella cool though and i think sooner or later a laymen is going to be the one that makes real headway on getting some kind of accepted meaning out of this mysterious book

[araeshkigal]

Steve doesn't know these things....he doesn't have google?

Not impressed...the folding key does...what exactly?

It resolves back to start when you fold it? Like..anything else you fold and unfold that way?

Bah

[LonnyFrank]

Yeah I agree, folding that sheet of paper amazingly got him back to the original fold! Somebody notify the mayor! This man has folded this sheet of paper and returned to the original fold of this dimensional reality. This is mind breaking news? I mean, "how did he do it"? I'm going to be racking my brain for weeks now to figure this one out. I tried it myself but the only thing that happened was my fold created an origami crane! Not quite as exciting as this guys video but hey!

[LazlosPlane]

What did Steve Ekwall accomplish?

I mean, can he now read the damned manuscript? Does his "folding key" reveal anything?

I can create a folding key too, in about a minute but it won't decipher anything.

What "THINGS" did the "spirit" reveal?

Jesus, this video is frustrating.