"Cooperation," the Harvard University biologist Martin Nowak has written, is "the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities."

As mankind now tries to solve new, global challenges, we must also find new ways to cooperate. The basis for this cooperation must be altruism.

The desire to help others without consideration for ourselves is not just a noble ideal. Selflessness raises the quality and elevates the meaning of our lives, and that of our descendants; in fact, our very survival may even depend on it. We must have the insight to recognize this, and the audacity to say so.