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Is it possible to locate a man given only his photograph and first name?

findsatoshi.com — A UK games company is testing the power of the Internet by asking that very question; they have recruited one of Earth ’s 6 billion residents; a Japanese man named Satoshi to participate in this experiment. People from over 40 countries are already participating in the hunt, with more joining every day.

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  • futzy99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28That's really cool. I'll bet they'll find him, it's just a matter of time.
    • TriZz, on 10/12/2007, -9/+44This doesn't test the 6 degrees of separation theory at all!! Not even in the least.

      One person posted a site that has reached well beyond 6 people. If enough people view the site, you'll eventually find someone who knows him, or has met him, or has seen him.
    • imcompa, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Like Trizz said, this is retarded...
      10,000 people on the internet find one person. Not 6 people's connection...
    • sniper6121, on 10/12/2007, -27/+1The origin of the name Satoshi is Japanese, so I would guess he lives in Japan somewhere.
    • crumbelievable, on 10/12/2007, -1/+92I saw that guy like 10 times today.
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -5/+174A better question: is it possible to locate a terrorist given his first name (Osama), last name (Laden), country (Afghanistan), periodical videotapes, and detaining his friends? No.
    • ufia, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2It's easy if you have access to a driver license database or a passport database or some such equivalent and you can search for matching pictures. You found your guy with full name and address.
    • S1ngular1ty1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+74It would have been really funny if his name was Waldo...
    • shreveyboy, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Maybe I've missed this, but is there any particular reason we are looking for this particular man? Or was it just an act of randomness?
    • lhall, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1It's part of a game, Perplex City: http://findsatoshi.com/thefacts.html . He has a keyword or something similar that is the "solve".
    • seventoes, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11sniper6121: The origin of my name is hebrew, but yet i live in Michigan, and im christian.
    • DirkVanAss, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3..Myspace?
    • writekelly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32Let me know when you find him, he owes me rent money.
    • xsuite, on 10/12/2007, -20/+11This is impossible, especially with an asian.They all look alike.
    • dragon76, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1Do they know Satoshi? Did Satoshi volunteer for this? Do they have the rights to the photo of Satoshi? Where's the social responsibility in honouring Satoshi's privacy? Where is the statement that this is legit?
    • KiBLeSnBiTs, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Did anyone notice that the pictures are the same? just with buldings taken out with the photo without him. (maybe its an older photo)

      the patterns on the building look the same.
    • lhall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0dragon76: To answer your questions...yes, yes, yes, he agreed to participate, and on the site. :)
    • arnar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@KiBLeSnBiTs: Either you didn't get or I'm incredibly stupid for not understanding your comment. The second picture is a reference picture of the town where the first one was taken - read the text.
    • cleverboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well... remember the Andreas Grassl ("piano man")... that guy with amnesia that washed up somewhere and could play the piano well? Took a looooong time to figure out where he was from and who he was, and he got MAJOR exposure on the net and in the media, and cooperation with missing persons and local authorities. Picked up April 7th 2005. By August, people were skeptical his identity could ever be "found", although when he started talking again, things cleared up. His parents, who had filed a missing persons' report apparently never recognized showings of his picture. True, there was no name... but it still sounds hard.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Man_(person)

      It's interesting though... now that I think about it, you could probably do an identity search in that region. I could probably scan for him on Ancestry.com right now. --Oh, wait... Satoshi is neither in jeopardy, nor is there any money, awards, or prizes involved. On second thought I think I'll watch passively with little interest...
    • nomadxx7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hell while we're at it we should try for their Perplex City's $200,000 Cube. Find a guy and make a cool $200K
    • k2thelew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Is it possible to locate and exterminate someone based on their digg username: stupidppl
    • Irishcreamyo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8looks a lot like a guy I work with. http://vanoijen.med.harvard.edu/people.html
      check it


      Satoshi Habuchi (postdoctoral fellow)
      Being trained as an analytical chemist in Japan (Ph.D. Hokkaido University, 2001), Satoshi spent three years at Leuven University (Belgium) as a postdoc. There he studied the photophysics of fluorescent proteins at the single-molecule level. In 2005, he joined our lab to work on the development of a new assay that will allow us to study the spatial and temporal behavior of the various enzymes at the eukaryotic replication fork.
    • webphreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Something like this happened to my mum in our town about 15 years ago (this is a small town of 30k people in New Zealand) someone just put her photo on an envelope as a joke and it got to our house. It was quite funny.
    • iFrank, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1They seriously picked an Asian guy?

      Yeah...good call. Pssht.
  • royall64, on 10/12/2007, -22/+15I am Satoshi!
    • jcapogna, on 10/12/2007, -10/+38No, I'm Satoshi!
    • edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -13/+7No, I'M Satoshi!
    • Tenlow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+41I'm Spartacus!
    • GrimRage, on 10/12/2007, -15/+8I'm Flaccid with Rage!
    • ziki, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!
    • jdoo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I am Iron Man!
    • YoungDeezy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7I'm Brian Fellow!
    • geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2I look forward to killing you All.

      -Ninja.
    • PolarPyro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33I'm Troy McClure, you may remember me from such films as "The Wackiest Covered Wagon in the West", and "The Erotic Adventures of Hercules".
    • MadOtaku, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2I'm William!

      wait, that IS who I am...
    • quakeIII, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3i'm i'm speech problem
    • AKPirate, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16I'm jumping on the bandwagon!
    • NiLeS, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3By the way, my name is Bruce Dickinson. Yes, *the* Bruce Dickinson.
    • mariowario, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Say Hello To My Little Frie....oh nvm, wrong topic.
    • smoothmedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm Ed Bradley
    • JesusIsSatan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you've seen one Satoshi, you've seen them all.
    • allenu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm your worst nightmare.
    • talman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I am Jack's complete lack of surprise
  • IvanB, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13Dugg because of the theory of six degrees of separation. Pretty cool.
  • homerj14, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2I found him in the Bad Lands in World of Warcraft digging up gold
  • hbweb500, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Wasn't Google working on an image search that found a bit of one image in another: image recognition? That would be useful for this.
    • subhuman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5There was a piece of software called "Milton" that , given a piece of porn (picture or video) would go out and find other videos and galleries of that same model.

      Found the link:
      http://www.miltonsoft.com/
    • xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17great! Now all we gotta do is get that man to do a porn video!
  • saucedmike, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2They have their own link to a digg on the site.
    It is at http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Six_Degrees_of_Separation_Find_Satoshi
    Buried as duplicate.
  • homerj14, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1good idea I hope we find em
  • hobbsy, on 10/12/2007, -13/+4Why are so many 'MrBabyMan' and 'CLIFFosakaJAPAN' stories making the Digg front page?
    • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21Because people digg his articles...
    • caketank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well, if they're anything like this one, I'd guess it's because they're awesome.
  • SteveRogers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25Of course it's possible. Do you know Waldo's last name? Have you ever found him knowing more than what he looks like? That's what I thought.
  • nonregulator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You do realize the guy who made up Six Degrees of Separation, really did just that. He made it up. In reality his pseudo test wasn't valid, so while I think its a neat idea to leverage the Internet to find someone, don't bring a dated theory into it.
  • MadModMike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

    I didn't really know what it was...
  • ForlornHope, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's easy, because he'll appear as a crosshair in your HUD. The only problem is that he's probably not in the district the list says he is. Time and patience are all it takes. Be sure to bring the right weapon.
  • keikun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22I'm having trouble finding Carmen Sandiego and I know how she looks like and her full name...
  • afruff23, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5That guy looks like 25% of the Asians I know. Too hard. They should have chosen an Irish guy or something easier.
    • n0c0ntr0l, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Keep your racist comments to a minimum. They don't all look alike. They are no more different that one white person to the next.
  • kalpol, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1No security through obscurity.
  • pathy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Games company?

    They're gamers?

    I bet they've killed him, and now this is part of their sick games to simply enjoy the torment...

    Quick, phone Jack Thompson and the CSI: Miami writers!
  • Amything, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Hey its Toshi!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SznJtYUginM
    • kazuhima, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2LMFAO.
    • writekelly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Ahhhhh hahahahaha. You are sooooo good. You are soooooo fabrewrous! Can we just find her now?!!
  • elitexero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Dude if you goto Toronto, you'll see him everywhere you go. Good luck
  • JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9This man will be found, and the next man/woman, and the next man/woman -- the number of people interested in this will grow. Then about a dozen of these sites will creep up out of nowhere littered with crappy banner ads and AdWords. The OED will add some clever word describing it to its dictionary and people will slowly lose interest in the phenomenon.

    The nail in the coffin will be when some pedophile or stalker sets up a site tracking down his victim.
  • jeff1to1618, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I dont like how he is in on it. itd be cooler if someone just found a picture.
  • kazuhima, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1use the magic of 2ch!
  • ixalon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Woohoo! Nice to see the hunt for Satoshi has been well dugg :)
    There are a number of us taking part - another part of the effort is http://www.billion2one.org/
    We're even offering a reward for those who can help :)
  • blamellors, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Satoshi? saw him last night at a sushi bar in Queens. Could he be the one. Hope this works because then we'll do the same with Osama AND we know his full names.
  • ziki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe go to the city where that picture was taken, and ask whoever lives around those buildings in the background if they've seen him
  • ziki, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Found em:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Ketchum
  • marinist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1If that photo is any clue to his country of residence, Satoshi lives somewhere in Europe, possibly Germany.
    That would be a more interesting search than trying to locate one Satoshi in Japan.
  • ixalon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2We've determined the photo was taken in Kaysersbeg in the Alsace region of France. It seems unlikely that he's still there - http://www.billion2one.org/
  • johntwoods, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1his name's gunnar, and he's dating my mom....
  • interpaul, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Of course it's possible. Say I have a picture of a monkey and his name is George. That's easy! He's in the Oval Office at the White House.
  • washingtonydc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6if he went to my university, I'm sure my almuni services could find them and beg for a contribution.
  • petercooper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm looking as hard as I can for the article about it.. but a newspaper did this sometime in the early 20th century.. and someone found the guy. All before the Internet :)
  • arnar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1sorry, meant to reply
  • hidd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1man these chinease all look the same.


    i'm joking - there all cool
  • jgrgg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1The gov't isn't going to find Osama anytime soon u think we can get them to look for this guy instead?
  • jgrgg, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0can people please stop making jokes about Chinese people you can't even spell Chinese
    oh and read the article he is Japanese not Chinese DEE DEE DEE
    • Curufir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"can people please stop making jokes about Chinese people you can't even spell Chinese"

      They might not be able to spell, but your reading comprehension is even worse.

      The article states that the text is in Japanese. Nothing is said about the nationality of the guy.
      Photographing him in Alsace doesn't make him French, writing Japanese on the card doesn't make him Japanese.
  • anomalya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2chinease chix are hot
    • Derrekito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So are Japanese.

      Learn to spell Chinese... it may be acceptable in Iowa, but here there are "other" people around.
  • crashflow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2FTA:
    THE FACTS:
    We are looking for a man named Satoshi.
    He is Japanese and may live in Japan.
    His photo was taken in Kayserberg, Alsace, France.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Kayserberg,+ALsace,+France&sll=48.140246,7.261384&sspn=0.006787,0.021629&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=48.140475,7.261341&spn=0.006787,0.021629&om=1&iwloc=addr

    I'm pretty sure Satoshi means Waldo in Nihongo, but I could be wrong.
  • moovitz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If i can't find my car keys, how the hell am I going to find a random asian fellow?
  • rezendes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if someone finds this guy, maybe we can then use those same techniques to find people that actually need to be found, like missing children.
  • Rage67, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What happens if we find him?
    do we capture him and take him
    back to his natural habitat?
    ....seriously...
  • pgphilip, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0hellooo. where is my comment.
  • JesusIsSatan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Luck they didn't pick a Chinese dude. Because even if they say "you're one in a million", there's 1000 dudes that look exactly like you. And if you're Asian, to us Americans, if you're one in a million, there's a million guys that look exactly like you. :)

    I want to know how this real-life Find Waldo contest works out.
  • JesusIsSatan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How about I give them a picture of Osama bin Laden. Maybe they will have better luck than our idiots in Washington.
  • Slipknotic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3On the totse.com BBS forum, there was a guy who wanted advice with a girl. He posted a picture of himself, and the picture of a girl as she drove by his house. They helped him , and he kept everyone updated on how his relationship with the girl was going. After awhile he stopped responding,the members got bored and decided to figure out where he lived using the little information they had.
    Before long they had found 4 possible farms he could live on, and using google Earth had them marked. During the process in which they were working getting donations to visit these four locations the thread was closed. OK, one of the admins was informed that one of the 4 places were actually his real location, and that posting members private information was against the rules. They did not go visit him, but the power of the Internet and a collective mind of forum members can go a long way.
  • shade73, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Irishcreamyo:
    That could be him? I looked at the picture for a while and it does certainly bear some resemblance. Also it says he went to school in Belgium as a postdoc. The http://www.findsatoshi.com/research.html says that the picture was taken in Kaysersberg, Alsace, France. That's a mere 5 hours and 58 minutes away. Now I'm not saying that it's him, (and it probably isn't?) but:

    1.) He's at least went to college in Japan
    2.) He could have very well had his picture taken in france AND had a way to get there (since he was already in Belgium).
    3.) they could have used an older photo to throw people off, just to see if it could be done.


    just my 2c, but if this does end up being him let me know! :P Could be front page digg news lol

    You should ask if it's him, and if it is let me know ;)
    Peace
  • bonlebon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you find him you get to keep him, his mother won't take him back.
  • jofopico, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0all Asian people look the same, might as well have just said he was an Asian looking guy named satoshi.
  • lhall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Irishcreamyo, shade73: A quick search for "Satoshi Habuchi" yields this photo of him: http://www.chem.kuleuven.ac.be/mds/HabuchiS1.JPG. They do look very similar, but Mr. Habuchi doesn't have the freckles or mole that our Satoshi has: http://findsatoshi.com/satoshibig.jpg. Good find though!
  • themandotcom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is like, the coolest thing ever. You should all get your contacts in Japan, and like, Find Satoshi. This man HAS to be somewhere! Also, play PerplexCity.
  •  

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