That's pretty cool, especially the fact that it chose the problem itself. The uncovered text, though:
> O GOD UPHOLD KING CHARLS THE SECOND AND MAKE HIM THE SUPREME RULER OF THIS LAND
That's like working out a cereal box cipher and finding the message is "Do your homework and tidy your room".
It was published in 1653, during the Commonwealth. So faintly equivalent to finishing your book with "End the illegal war in Ukraine" in modern-day Russia.
The other cryptogram mentioned on the page is even "worse" - it's clear the garbled word is meant to be or refer to Cromwell specifically calling him an ursurper.
Looking up his biography, he presumably wrote the first while imprisoned for fighting in support of CHarles II, and the second would seem to have conveniently been published around the same time as he left for continental Europe.
With the royalist bent of this claim it would be more along the lines of “May glorious Russia prevail against Ukraine”.
I don't see the comparison though.
In the case of the Commonwealth, the UK empire was going strong and the guy was a royalist, aka supporter. The message "end the illegal war in Ukrain" aka Putin's genocide, does not really share a lot of commonalities here. If the message were to stop the Commonwealth from colonising everywhere and killing people then perhaps there would be a similarity, but I don't see the connection in the statement made here.
The UK did not exist in 1652. It was formed by the Acts of Union 1800. In 1652, England was (briefly) not even a monarchy - that is what Commonwealth refers to here, not the modern one.
Urquhart was imprisoned from 1651-1652 for fighting on behalf of Charles II, who was King of Scotland until his defeat in 1651, and trying to take the English throne. He didn't get the English throne until 1660.
The first English civil war started in 1642, Charles I was beheaded in 1649 and his son Charles II would not be king in England before 1660 at the restoration.
So in 1653, a 'royalist' was against the 'Commonwealth', which was the anti-monarchist side.
“‘Drink… More…. Ovaltine’, It’s just a crummy ad!?!?” crumples up cypher and tosses away
Holiday movie references aside, I guess we can chalk up a few more jobs on the ‘AI Took Our Jerb’ board: secret decoder rings, secret decoder ring-factory workers, and Enigma machine operators… and I guess cryptography-based puzzle enthusiasts, but that’s not a paid position.
Another tangent, I’ve only recently realized the OTHER AI took our ______ problem: all the various hobbies that people can spend a lifetime enjoying, perhaps incrementally improving (but most likely never mastering) over the years…. which have now been made much less exciting and rewarding, now that AI can do them instantly. Art and music are two very obviously implicated hobbies, but more niche hobbies like amateur cryptography are impacted too. I’m sure there are many many other examples…
Yes, unfortunately. I have met people that love AI videos (my in-laws being the closest to my bubble) and defend them as enjoying creativity.
Many people with niche and nostalgic tastes loved that music AI that got sued to oblivion recently.
For the record, I revile both as well. But for every person eating salad, there’s someone subsisting on McDonalds.
Okay, AI videos, whatever, people are stupid. But that's not art, and it's not music. People in my circles (art-adjacent) immediately bounce off AI images and music.
Outside of our bubble, yeah, especially if it's not called out specifically as AI. YouTube and Facebook are awash in stuff that's pretty clearly AI, and it's getting engagement or they wouldn't keep making it.
All of the "engagement" I see on those videos is calling out that it is slop and boomers being confused by whatever the topic is.
That view has been accompanying me for a while as well. Difficult to really put a finger on it, because what I'm thinking of are fields where "enthusiast dilettantes" did not have their joy in honing their skills in the slightest way affected by the existence of trained professionals so much better than them. But when anyone can just throw a few ktoken at it, that joy has to be, uhm, "renegotiated".
I guess sub-fields with little tool use won't be affected a lot, tool-heavy sub-fields.. might pretty much be over. (think playing the guitar at a campfire vs going wild on a set of TB-303 + TR-909 vs going wild on emulations thereof)
The other "ai took our..."
I like that term, I have been looking for a while now and haven't yet been been able to come up with a better one.
> all the various hobbies that people can spend a lifetime enjoying
I disagree. AI took chess literally decades ago now, and more humans enjoy playing it now than ever before.
Must have chafed him some this went unsolved for the rest of his time. On the other hand, if it wasn't going to get solved during my lifetime, then I definitely would have liked to have thought it will take centuries and a non-human form of intelligence.
Homework text is much more useful than uncovered text.
Message might have been a bit spicier if King Charles II ended up in a bad spot and our history was written by his enemies rather than his upporters.