The Ziggy cartoon on this past Monday showed a panhandler asking for coins and donations on a street corner. He wore a sign hanging from his neck that said "Forgot my Bitcoin password". Poor guy was dealing with personal identity.
I got a notice from the state motor vehicle office reminding me that soon I will need a special license to identify myself. It has a star on it and it is called "Read ID". To get mine, I had to show my birth certificate. The panhandler needs to convince people and machines of his identity. I may need to convince people and machines that I am who I say am. The trouble involves the steps I go through to convince people of my identity.
For ages, you would look at my face. But as we know, if you last saw me when I graduated from college, you might not be convinced that the face I show is the guy you used to know. You might interrogate me. Who was a professor I had at my college? Name some others in my class. Such background questions are often "security questions" that the man I say I am would probably know (unless his memory has deteriorated). If you have samples from earlier days of my fingerprints and my DNA, that might be used to convince you of my identity.
On tv, I see people look into a device that compares the veins in their eyes with my pattern. Maybe a computer has a record of my voice print, which might identify me, although my voice, too, has aged. Maybe the behavior of my dog or cat will convince you of my identity.
When I give out my cell phone number or my email address, you might accept what I have given as truly mine, that truly goes to the real me. So, if you send a 6 digit code to that phone or address and I successfully receive it and tell you what was sent, you and your machines might accept my identity.
When Martin Guerre returned home, his wife and child accepted him but mistakenly. Sometimes, identity is tricky.
Martin Guerre - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Martin_Guerre
Martin Guerre, a French peasant of the 16th century, was at the centre of a famous case of imposture. Several years after Martin Guerre had left his wife, child and village, a man claiming to be him appeared. He lived with Guerre's wife and son for three years.
