[1] The problem of explaining the mind is so complex as to require "big science" to make real progress.
The Project began with a conference of leading US scientists at George Mason University in May 2007 which led to The Decade of the Mind Manifesto, published as a letter to the editor in Science.
During the 1990s US President George Herbert Walker Bush declared a decade of research to center on neuroscience.
In May 2007, a group of scientists met at George Mason University's Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study to map out a roadmap for the Initiative.
The goal was to use the new federal support to jump start advances in our scientific understanding of mind as well as to use that same research to serve as an economic engine for the United States.
Additional important insights needed to come from areas as diverse as systems biology, cultural anthropology, social science, robotics, and automation technology.
The meeting also focused on the ethical, legal and social implications of new neurotechnologies that might emerge from the Decade Project.