The next "space race" might be the race to develop a synthetic model of the human brain - one that Google and Microsoft will participate in, if a report is true.
And instead of trying to beat the Russians, this time the Americans will be racing against the Europeans, who have already announced their plans.
The New York Times reported Monday that the Obama Administration is close to announcing the Brain Activity Map, which scientists quoted by the paper say could be on the scale of the The Human Genome Project, a $3.8 billion project to map the human genome that, the Times reported, returned $800 billion in jobs and other benefits.
The Brain Activity Map would attempt to document how the brain works, from the tiniest neurons up through how possibly the different regions of the brain communicate with one another. If the project succeeds, the Brain Activity Map might give us an understanding of how the human brain "computes" data through its complex web of neurons. It might also help scientists solve brain-related diseases like Alzheimer's.