午夜剧场

The term "data science" has become widely known. Against the backdrop of big data, data analysis utilizing machine learning and AI is flourishing. However, there may be an image that it has little relevance to the humanities, which often deal with subjects that are difficult to quantify. Wanting to demonstrate that potential, I accepted the editor's proposal immediately.

The Voynich Manuscript is a parchment manuscript estimated to have been created in Central Europe between the late 15th and 16th centuries. Despite attempts from diverse fields such as occultism, codicology, linguistics, cryptography, and informatics, it remains undeciphered more than 100 years after its discovery. Some research results even suggest it is meaningless nonsense.

It was over 100 years ago that we analyzed this manuscript through text data clustering, but we believe it remains a valid approach today. Fortunately, we obtained results showing that the content has a consistent structure and is theoretically decipherable. A complex cipher would not possess such characteristics, and a simple cipher should have been decoded long ago, so I believe it is written in an unknown language. However, since it has not yet been deciphered, the title is "Challenges" rather than "Deciphers."

Nowadays, one might want to pin their hopes on AI, but since there are no other materials in the same script and the amount of data is too small, it is unlikely to lead to an immediate decipherment. On the other hand, as technology advances by leaps and bounds, we are in an interesting era where the emergence of new methods can be expected.

Looking back at the research history of the Voynich Manuscript, the achievements of amateur researchers are prominent alongside so-called professional researchers. Therefore, I also introduced trends in scientific research by ordinary citizens (citizen science).

Additionally, Chapter 6 includes a three-way conversation with Hiroshi Aramata, a prominent 午夜剧场 alumni known as a naturalist, fantasy literature author, and translator. You will be able to enjoy a perspective different from that of the first five chapters.

I hope this book will serve as a reference for those interested in tackling humanities research topics from the perspective of data science.

Mari Agata (Co-author)

Seikaisha Shinsho

192 pages, 1,485 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.