Solving The Voynich Manuscript With Ai | Greg Kondrak

Greg Kondrak is a computer scientist who used Machine Learning to help decode the Voynich Manuscript and Dorabella Cipher. We also talk about language's relationship to AI, and the issues with ChatGPT.

Sponsors:

LINKS MENTIONED:

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:07 Overview of the difficulty of the Voynich Manuscript
00:04:53 There is no other document like Voynich
00:11:17 The controversy of the Voynich
00:12:38 All language is decipherment
00:27:51 "It is not simple at all"
00:30:49 The Dorabella cipher
00:33:05 Voynich may not be a human language
00:35:05 Universal concepts in language (fighting Chomsky)
00:43:37 ChatGPT knows nothing
00:44:41 AI doesn't have "truth"
00:47:09 Multiple language theory (Voynich)
00:48:34 Artificial intelligence lacks motivations
00:51:48 What rivals the Voynich?
00:53:05 "Puzzles made me a better scientist"
00:56:26 The Zodiac cipher
01:01:27 The problem of "language understanding" has been solved
01:06:48 Training AI in ethics
01:13:53 Chinese and English are superior (analytically)
01:19:35 Proving what the Voynich was and wasn't

[TheoriesofEverything]

Sponsors and Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:07 Overview of the difficulty of the Voynich Manuscript
00:04:53 There is no other document like Voynich
00:11:17 The controversy of the Voynich
00:12:38 All language is decipherment
00:27:51 "It is not simple at all"
00:30:49 The Dorabella cipher
00:33:05 Voynich may not be a human language
00:35:05 Universal concepts in language (fighting Chomsky)
00:43:37 ChatGPT knows nothing
00:44:41 AI doesn't have "truth"
00:47:09 Multiple language theory (Voynich)
00:48:34 Artificial intelligence lacks motivations
00:51:48 What rivals the Voynich?
00:53:05 "Puzzles made me a better scientist"
00:56:26 The Zodiac cipher
01:01:27 The problem of "language understanding" has been solved
01:06:48 Training AI in ethics
01:13:53 Chinese and English are superior (analytically)
01:19:35 Proving what the Voynich was and wasn't

[nicmancer]

Excellent conversation. Curt always asks well thought out questions and then allows his guest to answer fully before speaking again. He also manages to make complex subjects more accessible to people like me. Great stuff, as always, and keep up the good work!

[gst]

the thing that makes your channel to stand out Curt is that you're not afraid to disagree and call out you guests (in a polite way of course) if you have doubts. keep up great work. PS: by their reaction we can see if deal with genuine person on impostor.

[LordTempist]

Very relaxing to listening to this conversation. I've been contemplating whether there is any point in living. Your podcast gives me a reason to look forward to something when very little has given me any pleasure in such a great amount of time. Thank you.

[Pixx_-]

It's crazy how little I see this channel on my feed when I used to watch every episode. I literally have to search for your channel to see it anymore. I don't even get notifications for it anymore.

[kennethtan]

@44:43 this is the types of questions, reasonings, and alternate point of views on why I spend my 2 hours of walking time listening to Kurt's TOE. Thank you for saying that statement and Much Love from the Philippines.

[atom]

The first thought I had when hearing about Voynich was that there must have been some extremely specific thing that the writer was quite sure would be known (or never known) by those who he intended to (or not to) be able to read it.
So we go through all conceivable things that could have been permanent and stable enough to act as a cipher without success then my guess is that the writer probably wrote it for himself and encoded it in a manner that references things only the writer knows. Personal connotations with words and symbols.
That's exactly how I write sensitive info for myself.

[Gregzilla]

It's great to see how comfortable Curt was during this conversation. I enjoyed seeing his personality shine through at times. It just speaks volumes of his growth and journey since he first started.
No discredit to his guest, but I was really hoping to hear something new regarding the Voynich manuscript. It's such a weird book. Reminds me of something Tolkien would write or some video game lore/guide. I guess whoever wrote it has taken its meaning to the grave

[vishnunairms]

Very nice conversation, I found views of Greg Kondrak to be very illuminating.

[Vampnado]

Great interview! Good flow and pace in the question asking and answering! Very nice back n forth!! And ending on a lighter note with some smiles and laughs~

[jvburnes]

Fascinating. I'd be interested if they have been able to determine a number of things: 1) At what layer is the Voynich manuscript encrypted? Is it at the character level, the word level, the grammatical layer or something higher. Have you done analysis to determine the likelihood of any of these? 2) If there are universal meta structures in most languages, has it been analyzed to determine whether the patterns in the manuscript reveal any of these? Does it have the pattern of a descriptive document? A conversation? Music? A profit and loss statement? An inventory? 3) Simple substitution and transposition ciphers are ancient, but perhaps Voynich was encrypted using an early version of a more sophisticated algorithm like a stream or block cipher? How about a one-time pad? If Voynich was encrypted using Enigma would they have been able to break it already?

[LadyEtWatch]

I am 100% sure that several of the pages that i have seen are pictures of a species of a plant called
Kalanchoe daigremontiana, formerly known as Bryophyllum daigremontianum and commonly called mother of thousands, or Mexican hat plant, is a succulent plant native to Madagascar. Like other members of Bryophyllum (now included in the genus Kalanchoe), [1] it can develop on its leaf margins, as well as through upshoots from lateral roots, and seeds. All parts of this species contain a very toxic steroid known as daigremontianin.[2][3]

[jamielowell]

The words and pics were placed in the book or manuscript in the 1500s, but we still don’t know when the content was created for sure. Maybe it was transcribed from something already in existence and done so to preserve the information.

[DeuceGenius]

Love you man. I've been slacking on watching your podcasts. Wish I had more time in the day :)

[davidlandino]

I have had the privilege of "reading" the entire manuscript, in person, TWICE! It is even more amazing when you see the real book. One thing that really stood out to me was the vibrancy of the colors in the book, vs those depicted in scans online. The current thought here at Yale is that this manuscript can not be solved without a source language or a key. Its possible that the missing pages may shed some light if they can ever be located.

[kenlarson]

Clever...consider the Voynich Manuscript was a leftover from an early Shakespeare play about alien visitors. Possible Klingon-like translation for "get thee to a nunnery!"

[And_Rec]

Love the no BS professor! "If it doesn't work is it a theory worth following?"

[MysteryProductsLtd]

I did sketchbooks like this in the 1990's. Granted not as brilliant but I don't think it is that rare for people who are a combination of artist, musician and writer to create something "alien", experimenting with form, like Joyce's Finnegan's Wake for example, so, though I like the Voynich Manuscript I think people go a bit nuts over it. It reminds me of the way people get a bit "special relationship" with William Blake.

[atom]

It's a guide book to the land admiral Byrd went to during operation highjump. They sell them in bodegas there.

[kateS]

This podcast is the archeological version of the movie Arrival. Very insightful. Thank you!