Lab report: James Morgan on the science that's shaping our futurePeople often say there's no such thing as true altruism. I'm willing to bet that those people are Audi drivers.Have you seen the new Audi advert yet? A man looks up to see silver light streaking across the night sky. After a montage of clips from the Apollo landings, we learn it is not a Nasa space shuttle, but the Audi A6.Then comes a subtitle which reads: "To date, Nasa has filed 6509 patents. In developing the A6, Audi filed 9621."That's quite a boast, but, hang on, isn't there an irony here? In the words of one blogger, "To paraphrase Audi, 'We're better than Nasa, because they let everybody else benefit from everything they learned during Apollo. We're making sure you can't. Please buy our car, though.'"
Too good to be true? Altruism’s better for you - The Herald
