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Comment by nimai | Hacker News Reader

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

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.

"He had only a handful of vague memories of the Denver area in the 1970s and '80s, along with what he thinks are childhood memories of Indianapolis."

Well, I'd start with that - you can do whatever you want.

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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