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I came across this via an old schoolmate.
I have no idea where it comes from. If anyone knows please let me know.
7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15.
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“Easy” being a relative term for reading in my case, then yes, it was just as easy for me to read the ‘alternative version’ as regular text. I understand how the visual-similarity substitution used here makes it so workable–it’s “normal” text that does all of the irrational dancing in my brain! :)
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Interesting. So was this very easy for you to read?
The symbols really are not random or irrational in this case. They are chosen for their resemblance to the letters they replace. To me shows a flexibility in the human mind to recognise different writing, hand or typed. That accuracy is not important. How important this difference is for second language readers who have little contact with the first language. The difficulties compound.
How this pose a problem to people with dyslexia or other similar literacy difficulties I would like to more about.
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It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if these things are easier to decipher if you (like me) happen to be dyslexic, in which case one is accustomed to reading things upside down, sideways, with letters and symbols intermixed irrationally, and/or by skimming to gather ‘generalized’ information visually that then gets compiled into specifics. Just a guess . . . but intriguing all the same!
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There was one similar to this that I had come across before in which some letters in the middle of a word were corssed (=misspelling) which still made perfect sense because we could still read it. Unreadability occurs though once either the first or last letters were the misplaced letters.
I cannot find the original source for that one either. They are interesting, indeed.
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What I remember about this kind of thing the first time I saw it go around many years ago (when it said that only the first and last letters of a word had to be the same and otherwise the middle letters didn’t count)–is that it depends entirely about how you structure it.. using look alike symbols (i.e. numbers) makes it pretty easy for brains to do this.. just as particular rearrangements of letters within words did not hinder the sort of speed comprehension/skimming that our brains did..
However–you could also thwart these things easily.. Re-write this message as follows–using numbers that don’t look like the letters–or just shift them one number and you get this far less readable message..
8H26 M4665G4 64RV46 8O PR0V4 H0W 0UR M2ND6 C5N D0 5M5Z2NG 8H2NG6! 2MPR4662V4 8H2NG6! 2N 8H4 B4G2NN2NG 28 WA6 H5RD BU8 N0W, 0N 8H26 LIN4 Y0UR M2ND 2S R45D2NG 28 5U80M582C5LLY W28H 0U8 4V4N 8H2NK2NG 5B0U8 28, B4 PROUD! 0NLY C4R852N P40PL4 C5N R4AD 8H26.
Anyway… I like thinking about these structures–but I always try to test these things and see where they break..
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ghoti 
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