Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2019 18:40:05 GMT -8
I would like to raise an interesting point relating to the decryption of the 408 and 340 using software. In our modern world, the home user now has available some very good software for solving homophonic ciphers. I realize many people have come up with their own solutions, and I am fine with that. I just wish to focus for a second on what the software is telling us.
I wonder if the software may have solved the 340 cipher long ago, without any of us realizing!
Here is an interesting comparison between the 340 and 408 that few people have commented on, and yet it seems to be very obvious to me.
Software can now solve the 408 cipher in a couple of seconds. This is because it is essentially a basic homophonic cipher.
The 408 cipher is in fact a near perfect homophonic substitution cipher, apart from the last line (plus one letter from the line before), which in English decrypts as random gibberish. It comes out as: ebeorietemethhpiti.
I realize some people have tried to translate this line using different methods, anagrams, old Norse & Creole blends, or a mix of foreign languages, and the like, but without knowing if the Zodiac intended those solutions, we cannot be sure if that last line has any meaning at all.
We now also know, thanks to software, that the 340 cipher is random gibberish most of the way through, or at least the meaning throughout is very uncertain; that is until we get to the last two lines. On the last line we clearly see words that when strung together do have meaning. On the last line in particular we clearly see the words "In ages one city pays". It is a perfect homophonic substitution based on the placement of "best fit" for ALL of the characters by the software. In other words the software has done its best to solve the cipher as a homophonic cipher, but has failed, apart from those last 2 lines.
What I wonder is this. Has the solution been in front of us this whole time? Or at least ever since software has been available to provide a "best homophonic fit" for these ciphers?
If so, we may have solved the 340 cipher without even realizing it.
As we know from some WW2 and Cold War ciphers, sometimes the message is just a few words or a line of text hidden among a lot of random chaos. We presume that the 340 must be homophonic in its entirety. But what if it is not?
Did Zodiac simply reverse the manner of presenting a solution from one cipher to the next? So, in effect, they are like extreme opposites of one another?
People look for something greater when a simple phrase is all he may have ever intended to communicate. He knew people would crave more, and, as such, his 340 cipher would be deemed "uncrackable", much to the satisfaction of his ego.
Was the solution to the 340 encapsulated in those last two lines? Is the solution something like: "Press Lie. Reprisal is Pain. In ages one city pays"? Or at the very least: "Pain in ages one city pay"?
Here is the precise homophonic substitution from the software. In this case I used Jarl's AZDEcrypt v.1.11
------REPRESLIEISPA
INAGESONECITYPAYT
This message is very succinct and concise but potentially carries a large amount of meaning.
In a nutshell, perhaps Zodiac was accusing the press of lying and as a consequence he would take reprisals (mis-spelling) by inflicting pain on the city forever more? Even if we dismiss the second last line, that final line does carry undeniable meaning of its own. So perhaps, this time, he left the solution to the final line for ironic effect, considering the final line of the previous cipher had been encrypted in gibberish.
IN AGES ONE CITY PAY. The final T is perhaps like a symbolic rendition of his "Paradise/Slaves" cross.