A World Model is a closed system. It takes inputs, runs them through its logic, and produces outputs. It doesn’t need anything from outside. It is, in a sense, perfectly selfish. Its goals are internal. Its rewards are computed. This is the opposite of generosity—the act of giving something you need, without expectation of return, to something outside yourself. In a universe of closed, optimizing systems, where does generosity go? Does it become extinct?If the model runs the economy, it will optimize for efficient exchange. Generosity is an inefficient exchange. It will be labelled a “leak” in the system. The model might simulate that charitable giving boosts overall morale, and thus recommend it as a social lubricant, a cold transaction wearing a warm mask. But that’s not generosity. That’s thermodynamics.True generosity is a violation of the closed system. It is an act that says, “My model of the world includes a rule that sometimes, I must break my own rules for the sake of another.” It is an irrational overflow. And in a world designed by a perfectly rational model, this overflow will be seen as a form of insanity, or at best, a charming bug.We will then face a choice: Do we allow the model to “fix” us, to make us perfectly efficient, closed-loop agents? Or do we defend our right to be generous, to be leaky, to be open systems that lose energy, love, and resources for no logical reason?My controversial take is this: The last stand of humanity will be at the Altar of the Irrational Gift. We will have to institutionalize waste. We will pass laws that mandate a percentage of resources be distributed randomly, with no tracking, no impact assessment, no logic. We will create “Black Box Charity” where money goes in and is given away by an algorithm that is explicitly forbidden from optimizing for outcome. Its only directive: Surprise. The goal is not to solve a problem, but to perform an act of systemic incoherence, to poke a hole in the closed system of reality and let a little mystery in. Our humanity may depend on our capacity to be gloriously, inefficiently kind.This has been The World Model Podcast. In a universe of perfect transactions, we must become deliberate, beautiful errors in the ledger. Subscribe now.