Fable 5.1 Solves the Cyphral Distich, a 370-year-old cipher
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AI model Fable 5.1 solved a 370-year-old cipher by using the book itself as the key.
Fable 5.1 deciphered Sir Thomas Urquhart's Cyphral Distich (64 numbers) in 44 minutes. The key was not an external cipher but Urquhart's own 32 Proquiritations: each number indexed a word in the corresponding Proquiritation, and its first letter formed the plaintext. The solution reads: 'O GOD UPHOLD KING CHARLS THE SECOND AND / MAKE HIM THE SUPREME RULER OF THIS LAND.' The model also decoded a larger 285-number cipher (the Cyphral Octastich) from Urquhart's 1652 book The Jewel, recovering a royalist prayer with only nine letters unreadable. The author notes the answer was simple in hindsight, requiring persistent attention to overlooked clues.
What commenters are saying
Commenters were intrigued by the technique of giving AI a pep talk and encouragement, comparing it to the George Dantzig story where a student solved hard problems after mistaking them for homework. Some noted that framing and persistence, not raw intelligence, drove the result. A split emerged: some found the approach a useful metacognitive hack for AI, others warned that positive reinforcement can cause models to create unwanted memories. One commenter shared a similar hobby project where Claude helped map historic gardens, calling models a boon for ambitious but tedious research.