Want to get famous? Decode this book. The Unsolvable Mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript - The New Yorker
I've read in a couple of places that people look for patterns just because that's what people do - it's a psychological necessity. And they often "see" patterns that aren't there. I think it might have gone down this way: In 15th century Poland, somebody in need of a few zlotys (or whatever currency was used then) figured out how to write a best-seller, i.e. let people write it for themselves - their way. He put an alphabet together and wrote a book of random letter combinations. Yeah, people would work forever on faux-decipherment and come up with the stories they wanted to hear. To keep their attention, he thought of adding pictures. "Yeah - lots of pictures of naked women - that'll always work," said the 15th-century Hugh Hefner. And it did work - people are still looking for patterns that may not be there at all. Latest effort I heard about was Canadian. Two researchers figured the text was encoded Hebrew. I don't think that worked out either. Hey, can anyone help me unscramble the Phaistos Disk? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc
