poster Joao has presented his proposed solution. He claims that it will leave everyone both soiled and shocked

Soiled for sure.

Can you actually have a "closest solution" without errrr ….a solution?

Can you actually have a "closest solution" without errrr ….a solution?

Trav-

Nope, you can’t. I have spent so much of my time on the 340, and I really do want to see it solved, if any solution is ever to be found. And I try to give a fair shake to any solution that falls from the tree, but this thing is just ridiculous. I don’t even think that it is (honestly) presented as a real solution so much as a very elaborate troll. I don’t know why people do this stuff, I really don’t.

Author Joao‘s PDF file itself is actually presented well, artistically at least, and it has all of the possibly expected things in there, "I SHALL," "THIS IS THE ZODIAC SPEAKING," etc. But it is obviously such contrived and made-up bullshit that it is clear that the "solution" was written first, and then the work was done backwards to explain how it was derived. Except, of course, that that part wasn’t ever really explained either.

I quite honestly don’t understand why people spend so much time making up nonsense like this. There is so much misinformation in this case already that adding to it just seems like trolling. And I guess that’s what it is. Joao gets to be ‘famous’ on a message board that almost no one reads with a "solution" that no cryptographer would ever accept, and gets happy with "wow, I really got them!"

That’s all I can figure. As I said, I didn’t even want to post this, but I thought that it needed to be seen.

-glurk

Imo it’s nonsense. Glurk is absolutely right with what he wrote. And:

1. Cleartext length is shorter than cipher, ok.
2. Transcription (cipher table) is not identical to the 340 cipher, however applicable to that ‘solution’
3. It is not explained, why e.g. the fourth symbol should be respresented by the number 14 (equal to ‘N’ as in ‘Name’). The table is therefore rather made according to the text instead of for any other reason.
4. The ‘Pi’ and sequence issue..all that doesn’t lead to e.g. the fourth symbol to represent number 14 (same with the other ‘transcription’ numbers).
5. He writes

"The sum of the year 1941, PI’s first 340 fractions (1512), and her (31), the entry to the 340 Character cipher, equals 3484 which, coincidentally, is the combined total of my 340 code table.
This alone proves that, mathematically speaking, all the numbers “add up”, my 340 code table is correct, my solution is valid."

No, imo it’s not…at least as long there is no explanation of how he got to that transcription table (which I doubt will ever happen).

"I was left with the number 166 staring straight at me! In laymen terms, for those who still do not understand the principle, 16 is the amount of letters in an individual’s name, and 6 refers to Zodiac (6 letters)."

Numbers staring at me..yeah.

QT

Imo it’s nonsense. Glurk is absolutely right with what he wrote. And:

1. Cleartext length is shorter than cipher, ok.
2. Transcription (cipher table) is not identical to the 340 cipher, however applicable to that ‘solution’
3. It is not explained, why e.g. the fourth symbol should be respresented by the number 14 (equal to ‘N’ as in ‘Name’). The table is therefore rather made according to the text instead of for any other reason.
4. The ‘Pi’ and sequence issue..all that doesn’t lead to e.g. the fourth symbol to represent number 14 (same with the other ‘transcription’ numbers).
5. He writes

"The sum of the year 1941, PI’s first 340 fractions (1512), and her (31), the entry to the 340 Character cipher, equals 3484 which, coincidentally, is the combined total of my 340 code table.
This alone proves that, mathematically speaking, all the numbers “add up”, my 340 code table is correct, my solution is valid."

No, imo it’s not…at least as long there is no explanation of how he got to that transcription table (which I doubt will ever happen).

"I was left with the number 166 staring straight at me! In laymen terms, for those who still do not understand the principle, 16 is the amount of letters in an individual’s name, and 6 refers to Zodiac (6 letters)."

Numbers staring at me..yeah.

QT

And if you add in the zip code for the Virgin Islands, subtract Arthur Allen’s birth date it equals the numbers for the binary code of Zodiac. Which is clearly smoking gun proof it is right!

But if 6 turned out to be 9, would he mind?

These type of solutions always pop up, but it is good for glurk and doranchak and others to check them, just in case there is anything of value and to show the flaws and errors in them. To deflate them before the nonsense spreads too far.

More proof of the ruse that is the 340…I have never thought the Zodiac was overly intelligent, contrary to some beliefs, but he sure went mensa with that one.

This is the Nikki in the solut… "suggestion"

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1586

I think this phenomenon can be partially explained by these two facts:

1) The attention he gets, including the negative attention, validates his efforts and drives him to generate more content.
2) You cannot reason him out of a position that he did not use reason to get himself into.

You cannot reason him out of a position that he did not use reason to get himself into.

I like that. Very proverbial.

A proper cipher solution should always involve a functional mapping, i.e. only one solution is possible from the ciphertext given the decoding scheme. Any scheme that has a one-to-many (or many-to-many) mapping is pretty much guaranteed to be junk. It allows huge scope for the solver to map the ciphertext onto the plaintext that he or she wants (and there will be many, many potential plaintexts for any given ciphertext).

If the 340 is ever solved, the solution will imo have these characteristics:

1. The decryption scheme will be a functional mapping, i.e. only one solution will be possible for any given ciphertext.
2. The solution will not read like the lovechild of a depressed drunk and a low-grade spam bot. A "solution" that looks like this:
KILLINGALWAYSCOMPELLEDBERRYESSASTINEZODIACSOSORRYCABDRIVERREGRETMUSTKILLPRISONCARVALLEJOHATEAVERY
…it probably isn’t correct.

Kaitain-

I completely agree with you. Even though, in this case, the "solution" actually reads somewhat cleanly. But of course that is because it was never an honest effort at a solution to begin with, as it was just a made-up message that was covered in numerous layers of bullshit in order to appear correct. This is the sort of thing that I just hate to see, it honestly angers me.

There have been quite a few 340 attempts over the years, none ever verified, and all of them wrong, IMO. But at least some people make a sincere effort and perhaps go astray somewhere. The one posted here is just blatant deception though, and I think you would agree, none of us need any of that!

-glurk