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BBC Radio 4 has just released a code breaker challenge and I am totally stuck.

If Samuel transcribed what Louis wrote…
…and Louis wrote what Ludwik translated…
…and Ludwik translated what Tim said…
…then what did Tim say?

Here is Samuel’s transcription:
IN AAAAIAN INAAANAIA IA IAINA AI AA IAIIA IAA AAIAAINN AA IAAANN IAINANI NA ANNNNMA NAANIANMN NN ANNAN NN AM MNNNN ANI MAAINNIA AM NNAMIA NNAANIN AM MMIAAMA MMIMAAMMA MM AMAAA MA AM AAAMA AAA MAMAAAAM AM AAIMMM MMMMAMA

 

CLUE: The key to unlocking the puzzle is identifying Samuel, Louis and Ludwik. There are links between them!

For those of you wanting to try it out here is the PDF version.

The answer will be revealed on 22/11/2016 but hopefully we will have an answer by then.

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    $\begingroup$ Samuel and Louis, probably. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:25
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    $\begingroup$ Off topic because on going competition? $\endgroup$
    – greenturtle3141
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ @greenturtle3141 Is it a competition though, or just an ongoing challenge? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:27
  • $\begingroup$ @greenturtle3141 there isn't a prize to be won, its just for fun. $\endgroup$
    – Karm
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:28
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor Thanks for the steer :) $\endgroup$
    – Karm
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:39

2 Answers 2

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The obvious thing to do (I agree with Levieux) is to reverse the process from

Morse (.=dot, -=blank) to Braille to Esperanto to, I suppose, English.

In case there's any doubt about Louis, note that

the message is of three lines, all with the same pattern of letters and spaces; and the four letters used are exactly the ones made up of two Morse code elements.

The message appears to be

ni bezonas diverseco de penso en la mondo por alfronti la novaji defiojn

which seems to mean

we need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges

which is a quotation from

Tim Berners-Lee

although Google Translate doesn't like the penultimate word in the translated version; maybe I have made a transcription error.

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    $\begingroup$ Wow, that's fast. I was just half way. $\endgroup$
    – Levieux
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:59
  • $\begingroup$ Well done, that looks correct. Still working on the first section myself haha. $\endgroup$
    – Karm
    Nov 18, 2016 at 14:03
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    $\begingroup$ My process, since two people have now remarked I was faster than them: (1) copy the text into a text editor (I use Vim). (2) Use global replace to turn A into .-_ etc. (3) Use global replace to turn spaces into multiple spaces and _ into single spaces, so now I can see the characters. (4) Pull up a chart of the Braille alphabet and translate letter by letter. I don't think there's anything super-smart there. I'm quick at looking things up in charts, good at remembering things I've seen before, and good at guessing what letter might come next in a Latinate language :-). $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Nov 18, 2016 at 14:11
  • $\begingroup$ ... and you're obviously good with a text editor. :) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Nov 18, 2016 at 14:16
  • $\begingroup$ If you're good with vim, there's an absolutely silly amount of power at your fingertips. I do my solve notes in vim also, for similar reasons. (This is not an invitation for an editor holy war. Emacs aficionados, I am not baiting you.) $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Nov 18, 2016 at 17:28
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Hmm, I'm thinking

Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof translated the message into Esperanto

then

Louis Braille wrote it down (in Braille)

and finally

Samuel Morse transcribed it to morse code

Next step is to reverse these steps back into Tim's original message..

First step is to

convert the letters back into morse with
A = .-
N = -.
I = ..
M = --
And then interpret the result as braille probably

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    $\begingroup$ This may be a daft question however how would morse code work on this text where four characters are used? $\endgroup$
    – Karm
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:45
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    $\begingroup$ I = .. ; M = -- ; N = -. ; A = .- $\endgroup$
    – Levieux
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:47

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