Genius or crazy? What we already know about the young man from Acre

Brazil woke up impressed last Tuesday (4th) when it saw the news of Bruno Borges, a 24-year-old man from Acre who disappeared from home. This was no ordinary disappearance. Upon arriving home on March 27, Bruno's family found his room empty of furniture, but covered with cryptic messages and, in the center, a statue of the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno.

Scattered along the walls of the room, stretches of 14 handwritten books, with complete versions printed and organized in a methodical way. The setting was from a Hollywood movie.

What drew the most attention was the way Bruno chose to write the books and the excerpts pasted all over the room. Unlike ordinary texts, he encoded the content using symbols. Neither the family nor the police, who are following the case, were able to read anything at first. As the writings are encrypted, it is still necessary to unravel the meaning of each symbol to find out what Bruno wrote.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH6mOHkO52c]

Brazilian hackers took the first step in this direction. Using a book page whose image was leaked on the web, they were able to decipher part of the coded alphabet used by the young man from acre. They went further, providing a website with a virtual keyboard which translates to "language". Check out the translated excerpt.

"Hard way

For thousands of years human beings have been trying to find answers to questions like 'what is the meaning of life'? The philosophy that seems to have started with Thales of Miletus around 700 BC aims to find traces of unanswered questions. The deep search for absolute truth comes from philosophy, and when we talk about easy or difficult paths we are referring to this type of theorem.

It's easy to accept what you've been taught since childhood is wrong. It is difficult, as an adult, to understand that you were taught wrong what you suspected as a child was right. In other words, if you fit into someone whose environment stimuli determined a certain behavior, making you at the mercy of beliefs already provided and well established in dogmas and rituals, with a concentrated mass of people in it; or allowing you to conform, accepting the concept of happiness and meaning of life embedded by the media and society, then clearly you are part of the easy path to the search for the absolute truth.

Does he fall into the second option, that is, the one who was suspicious of every set of beliefs that was rooted in him, then he has everything to be an investigator of the truth in things around him, entering a more complicated path, in which a minority take a risk or face it bravely.”

boy genius

Bruno is 24 years old and is a psychology student. But, according to his mother, he has been a genius since he was a child. A book eater, he would have read more than a thousand works and had been studying philosophy on his own for a long time. Even though he was young, he couldn't talk to anyone his age or his social circle. He often exchanged ideas with experienced judges and intellectuals. Or with another very different group, made up of beggars, homeless people and people excluded from society in general. (https://ausoma.org/) He had become a vegan, and, according to his family, “had a good heart.”

Bruno's behavior was anything but trivial.. But despite the introspection, he had leadership demeanor. “At school, he was always distinguished, a born leader, with a high power of persuasion”. He would have used this convincing power with his family, to have free time to dedicate himself to a personal project that would “change the world in a good way”. He tried to get money from his mother to invest in the idea, but, without detailing the contents, he was not able to convince her.

“He said it was secret and I didn't give him the money. So he started looking for people who believed in him without telling what the project was. He just told me he was writing 14 books that would change humanity in a good way.”

Later, he had success with a cousin, from whom he would have borrowed R$20.

the preparations

Part of that money would have been used to buy a statue of the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno at a local factory in Rio Branco. Delivered when the boy was alone at home, it was only seen later, when Bruno left the house and showed his project to the family and the whole of Brazil. He was an unconditional fan of Giordano Bruno, killed by the Inquisition in 1600 for defending heliocentrism and the infinite universe, which houses other worlds beyond Earth.

To Mother, he said he was preparing his definitive work, and who needed time to dedicate. He would have started the project in 2013, and took several months of the last year at home, always locked in his room, to finish it. “He asked me for a year without working to finish and I, guided by a doctor, let him”, said his mother.

What the family did not expect was that the end of the project would mean Bruno's disappearance. Parents traveled for 24 days in March, and the young man from Acre took the time to prepare the room – he would only have to hide everything from the two brothers. He spent all this time making the changes, and not letting anyone in.

“Before that, I had written five books. One of them he wanted to patent, because he had launched a theory. He asked me for help and I said I would read it. I read it three times. Only in the third, when I went to read, I understood. I had never seen anything like that, his theory was perfect, that we are interconnected in everything. He wanted to patent it and I couldn't handle it. My son can talk about any subject, he has a very high intellectual capacity. He has read the entire Bible and the entire work of Shakespeare,” explains the mother.

Reddit and 4chan Theories

It didn't take long for forums on Reddit (both Brazilian as much as overall) and 4chan were interested in the subject. As usual, topics bring a lot of junk mail, but every now and then they end up helping to unravel the mystery. Among the most spiritual, there are those who find physical similarities to Bruno and his dead idol for almost half a millennium. And that, they say, would make the Brazilian the reincarnation of the philosopher.

But among the conversations there are those who stick to the facts. The network of collaborators has grown in search of break book encryption. You can follow the progress in Pastebin. The work is still in progress, but it is possible to read new excerpts from Bruno's writings:

“We saw that the easy path is a straight, uncurved, straight and uniform path, however, the difficult path is well presented as not being uniform, you cannot see the end. Unlike the illusion caused by those who follow the easy path, believing that they are seeing the end of the trail, this new path will be full of barriers and few are determined to face them.

To have a proper notion of how cunning it is to permeate this path as well as glorious and virtuous, it is enough that we base ourselves on the lives of great men who came to earth. However, it is first necessary to learn about the ways to follow this direction. And they will be split in two as well. This time it will not be classified with the ones that already have the answer, being it false, and […] they will not go after them. ”.

People all over the world are getting footage from the video recorded in the bedroom and trying to crack the secret code.

The answer to the mystery of the young man from Acre

The family is committed to looking for the son, and Bruno's father posted a video on YouTube to try to explain what is happening. “He has read more than a thousand books and, on top of these books, he has done some experiments. Everything he did has a foundation. The work is to help humanity. I know it's true. I will publish the whole work”.

The video was also made for Bruno himself, and brings an apology from the family. Check it out in full:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKoBkQNtMXU]

Police believe the young man will return home soon., and seems to rule out the possibility of kidnapping. “He didn't leave with documentation. We're looking in remote, remote places where he could be. There is no evidence of crime. Apparently, he planned. We believe that, soon, we should have positive news”, says Carlos Flávio Portela delegate general of the state of Acre.

Meanwhile, the investigation continues, and the books remain in custody. The publicly available translated excerpts originate from a few pages that were leaked in the video that went viral during the week.

What is Bruno's big secret project that his father mentions in the video? Is this a scenario to promote the boy's books? It all seems too bizarre, worthy of the Twilight Zone. But the outcome is yet to come – and we are all, you and I, curious to know how it ends.

O showmetech has contacted Bruno's family, but has not yet received a response. We will update the post with any news.