I think it's interesting to describe the process to establish your identity in the United States if you lost ALL of your identification documents (e.g. in a house fire).

It essentially boils down to:

- Get a bunch of people you know who can verify that you are indeed who you claim to be

- Have them sign legally binding documents that attest that, yes, you are you

- Start building your paper documents all over again

We never really talk about any of this given that it's pretty rare for this to happen to someone but I think it's interesting to point out that it eventually boils down to your IRL social network.