

Any Ideas HN? Know This Man? Can You Tell Him Who He Is? - ALee
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129668438
If there is any community who can think of the perfect hack to solve this man's problem, it's this group.
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nimai
I would go with an FMRI, while showing photos of symbols from different areas
- unique street signs, fast food restaurants, anything identifiable and
strictly regional. Start with a broader scope to get a calibrated reading of
his recognition - show signs and brands from across Asia, Europe and the
Americas, and narrow things down gradually as recognition happens.

Once this is narrowed down to a region of the country (i.e., if the In-N-Out
logo triggers a strong hunger response, you could narrow things down to the
west coast), start working with landmarks, TV station logos, commonly used
community areas like highway exits, streets, and eventually houses. I wouldn't
be surprised if they could pinpoint an exact address using this method.

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code_duck
He already said he had memories of Denver and another city, so that should
narrow things down.

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nimai
Imagine you're doing a sector-by-sector scan of a massive, corrupted hard
drive taken from a crime scene, trying to find out who the owner of the drive
was. It makes no sense to do a rigorous analysis of the first possible file
fragment that turns up - the odds are, it's just some random data file that
could be found in any system. How many people have memories of Denver, yet
have never been there in person? How many people have been to Denver, with no
records remaining of their visit?

There is no reason to believe this man ever had anything to do with Denver,
especially given the reliability of his "memories" thus far. How could someone
be named "benjaman", yet not turn up in any written records, anywhere?

I have very vivid, intense memories of Las Vegas, that are tied to emotional
experiences I have not had elsewhere. I spent only a week there, and paid for
everything in cash. Would it be useful to start the search there?

The only reason the method I suggested would work, is because it relies
entirely on weighted statistical analysis of what region-specific symbols this
man has been exposed to. You can't fake strong recognition - it reflects
changes to neural structure over long periods of time, and has a very low
probability of false positives.

~~~
code_duck
If you look more into it, on Wikipedia for instance is stated

"Kyle has memories of Indianapolis as a child, including the Soldiers' and
Sailors' Monument, the Woolworth's on the Circle, and the Indiana Theater
showing movies in Cinerama. He remembers Crown Hill Cemetery, though not its
name; the Scottish Rite Cathedral; and the White River when "it was mostly
just a dumping ground." He also remembers grilled cheese sandwiches for a
quarter and glasses of milk for a nickel at the Indiana State Fair. Kyle also
has memories of the area around the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has
detailed memories of the subscription the library has to Restaurants &
Institutions. He also remembers the Round the Corner Restaurant on the Hill,
and the Flatirons and The Fox Theater near the Boulder campus.[8] This places
Kyle in the Denver-Boulder area in the late 1970s to early 1980s.[6] In an
interview with Channel 7 News in Denver, Kyle reported having memories of the
controversy surrounding the construction of mass transit in Denver, at a time
when the city still had no financing to proceed. Although the mass transit
system in Denver went into operation in 1994, public debate over the
construction of the system dates back to about 1980, consistent with the time
period of the other memories that Kyle has about Denver and Boulder.[9]"

So actually yes, there is reason to believe he has connections to Denver and
Indianapolis.

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qw
"He was bounced around to hospitals and homeless shelters for nine months,
unable to see more than a few feet in front of him, until a charity raised
enough money to have his eyes fixed"

Something is seriously wrong with the system.

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carbocation
Is there any reason to believe that the story he tells is true? Storybook
retrograde amnesia is actually exceedingly uncommon; more commonly, this is
used deceitfully. My first instinct, coming from the hospital setting, would
be not to believe his story. I would then perform a battery of tests for
retrograde amnesia (tests with which I am not familiar since this is outside
of my primary interest).

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ALee
If there is any community who can think of the perfect hack to solve this
man's problem, it's this group.

Long story short, he suffers from amnesia, cannot remember who he is. They're
trying a bunch of really interesting new technology, but have not found out in
over 6 years time.

