The digital reconstruction of a slice of rat somatosensory cortex in 2015 in Cell from the Blue Brain Project provides the most complete simulation of a piece of excitable brain matter to date. To place these efforts in context and highlight their strengths and limitations, we introduce a Biological Imitation Game, based on Alan Turing’s Imitation Game, that operationalizes the difference between real and simulated brains. Jointly published with Michael Buice in Cell in 2015.