The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript May have been cracked by Artificial Intelligence (Essay Sample)

The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript May have been cracked by Artificial Intelligence The Voynich Manuscript What is the fuss about an old manuscript that no one can read? The fact that no one can read it and also because no one knows where it originated. The mystery is what sparks the fuss. The Voynich Manuscript is not named after its author, but after the man who brought it to the public’s attention. It dates to between the 14th and 15th centuries AD but dating is spurious. Often times, even with carbon dating, mistakes are made due to the many assumptions that experts bring to the subject under review.[Lim, C., (2018) Mysterious 15th-Century ‘Alien’ Voynich Manuscript Finally Decoded Using Artificial Intelligence, Inquisitor, HYPERLINK "https://www.inquisitr.com/4757080/mysterious-15th-century-alien-voynich-manuscript-finally-decoded-using-artificial-intelligence/" https://www.inquisitr.com/4757080/mysterious-15th-century-alien-voynich-manuscript-finally-decoded-using-artificial-intelligence/] Its contents are handwritten over 170 pages and contain exquisite drawings of plants and women. One source claimed that a letter once existed that stated that Roger Bacon was the author, but no concrete evidence supported the claim.[Amaranth Publishing (2013) The World's Most Mysterious Book: The Voynich Manuscript, HYPERLINK "http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/voynich.htm" http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/voynich.htm] Everything about the manuscript remains a mystery. Until now that is. Recent experiments have been conducted by Canadian researchers who now claim that artificial intelligence has helped cracked some of the mystery.[Weber, B (2018) Alberta computer scientist claims clues to deciphering mysterious Voynich manuscript, The Canadian Press, HYPERLINK "http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/computer-scientist-claims-clues-to-deciphering-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-1.4503571" http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/computer-scientist-claims-clues-to-deciphering-mysterious-voynich-manuscript-1.4503571] Unfortunately, their work has not uncovered any solutions to the questions: Who wrote it? Why did he, she or they write it? Where and when was it written? We cannot conclude that the accepted date is the actual date of composition. The good news is, these researchers think they have made progress. Has the manuscript been deciphered? The claim is there. Canadian researchers have deciphered the Voynich Manuscript. According to the reports, these men used artificial intelligence and 380 languages to help them get a break in the mystery.[McMullan, T (2018) Mysterious Voynich manuscript deciphered using AI, Artificial Intelligence, HYPERLINK "http://www.alphr.com/artificial-intelligence/1008330/voynich-manuscript-artificial-intelligence" http://www.alphr.com/artificial-intelligence/1008330/voynich-manuscript-artificial-intelligence] They also used a complex process of statistics and algorithms to investigate the language used by the author. But before anyone celebrates, the results received were not what has been claimed. In fact, those claims are a little exaggerated.[Op Cit. Weber, B (2018)] The Voynich Manuscript has not been deciphered as yet. All that the artificial intelligence agents have been able to do is possibly identify the language that the mysterious author may have used in constructing this work. That language was old Hebrew. This conclusion is based on the idea that the first sentence made sense.[McMullan, T (2018) Mysterious Voynich manuscript deciphered using AI, Artificial Intelligence, http://www.alphr.com/artificial-intelligence/1008330/voynich-manuscript-artificial-intelligence] There are 2 Problems As with any momentous event, there are a couple problems that need to be worked through before any declaration that the mystery has been solved can be made. Th first problem is verification. In their work, the researchers started with a document they knew and translated it into 380 languages. They then used artificial intelligence to identify each language. The researchers were successful 97% of the time. But they already knew which languages they translated the document into and they knew the original content. They could verify the results given by artificial intelligence.[Ibid] No such supporting documents exist for the Voynich Manuscript. And while artificial intelligence may come up with the correct language, there is no way to verify if it is correct or not. The 3% error factor also plays a role here and it is possible that artificial intelligence picked the wrong language. Even if some words make sense. This brings us to the second problem, and it is not a problem with artificial intelligence. It just may not have been programmed to consider this issue. The author of the Voynich Manuscript may have invented his or her own language and used that instead. This is not unheard of. J.R.R. Tolkien, the aut...