Working Paper - Brain Capital’s Role in US-China Competition

America may never be able to compete on the grounds of sheer numbers of graduates, so we must optimize the quality of education, work to recruit the best and brightest from around the world, and pay attention to training in uniquely American entrepreneurship. [...] Continuing to advance American science quality is the purview of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and others. [...] Rapid advancements in neuroscience and related disciplines raise the genuine possibility of brain capital enhancements, e.g., the above-mentioned BCIs, that may yield transformative ways of optimizing soldier performance and adaptability, but that may also may pose risks to the soldiers receiving the enhancements and to society at large. [...] Up until the development of solid-state electronics in the late 1960s, most of the brain capital and investments were in the defense industry or in the government research and development sector. [...] We suggest this should be a public-private task force and it should engage across the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.