Can Information Influence Gravity?
This paper explores a bold but carefully framed question: What if gravity is shaped not only by matter and energy, but also by information?
Since Einstein, gravity has no longer been understood simply as an invisible force pulling objects together. In general relativity, gravity is the curvature of space and time. Stars, planets, light, and galaxies move through a spacetime that is shaped by what it contains. The central question is therefore: What exactly counts as a source of this curvature?
This paper proposes a cautious extension of that question. It does not rewrite Einstein’s theory or change the geometric structure of spacetime. Instead, it asks whether the source side of gravity may be richer than usually assumed. Alongside ordinary matter and radiation, there may also be an effective informational contribution.
The key idea is that information is not merely something abstract stored in a mind or a computer. In modern physics, information already plays a deep role. It is connected with order, distinguishability, states, measurement, entropy, and physical processes. When a system is not completely arbitrary, but shaped by certain beginning and ending conditions, a structured relationship can emerge between what is prepared and what is later observed.
The paper describes this relationship as causal boundary alignment. This does not mean magical influence, time travel, or sending messages into the past. It means a statistical alignment between the preparation side and the outcome side of a physical process. Some approaches in quantum theory already show that both initial conditions and later measurement conditions can matter in the formal description of a system. This paper uses that idea carefully: not to claim retrocausal control, but to motivate an effective model in which such alignment may leave a macroscopic informational imprint.
To keep the idea physically meaningful, the paper avoids vague claims. It does not identify information with consciousness, thoughts, beliefs, or subjective meaning. The informational contribution discussed here is physical and structural. It concerns how much an actual state differs from a reference state, how much order or deviation is present, and how such a difference might be described after coarse-graining.
By itself, such informational deviation does not automatically produce gravity. Information has no direct energy dimension. For it to enter a gravitational model, it must be connected to an energy scale. The paper therefore introduces an effective framework in which informational deviation can be translated into an additional energy-like contribution. This contribution can then appear alongside ordinary matter and radiation as part of what curves spacetime.
This is especially interesting in cosmology. The universe contains matter and radiation, but it also shows an accelerated expansion that is usually described through dark energy or the cosmological constant. The paper shows that, under certain conditions, an informational contribution could behave in a vacuum-like way, similar to the kind of effect associated with dark energy. This does not mean that information has been proven to be dark energy. Rather, it opens a possible research path: perhaps part of what appears cosmologically mysterious may be connected to deeper informational structure.
The strength of the paper lies in its restraint. It does not claim to solve the cosmological constant problem. It does not claim to replace general relativity. It does not require exotic matter, break causality, or allow controllable communication outside the normal structure of cause and effect. In the appropriate limit, the model returns to ordinary general relativity.
This makes the proposal more serious. Instead of presenting a dramatic overthrow of existing physics, it asks a precise question: Could the source of gravitational curvature include an informational sector?
The broader significance is that the paper connects three major themes of modern theoretical physics: gravity, quantum information, and cosmology. Many approaches to new gravity modify the geometry of spacetime itself. This paper takes a different path. It keeps the geometric side of Einstein’s theory intact and asks whether what feeds into that geometry may be more complex than matter and radiation alone.
If this idea is correct, even in an effective or limited sense, it would change how reality is understood. Matter would not be the only physically meaningful ingredient. Structure, deviation, state, and information could also belong to the deeper architecture through which the universe takes shape.
This paper is therefore not a popular claim that “everything is information.” It is a disciplined theoretical proposal. Information is not mystified, but modeled as a possible effective contribution to gravity. The framework remains limited, cautious, and open to further development. Concrete predictions would require additional model-specific choices and observational testing.
At its heart, the paper asks a simple but far-reaching question: Is gravity only a response to where matter and energy are, or could it also respond to the deeper informational structure of physical reality?
You can find the full scientific article in the International Journal on Science and Technology:
Elias Rubenstein (2025): Gravity from Information: An Equation of State for Spacetime Curvature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71097/IJSAT.v17.i2.11271