When Energy Emerges from Information

The scientific article “Informational Energy in a Causal–Symmetric Framework for Spacetime” by Dr. Elias Rubenstein asks a deceptively simple question: What if a part of the energy that shapes our universe is not stored in particles or fields, but in information itself? Instead of treating energy as something that sits on top of spacetime and is carried only by matter and radiation, this work explores a universe in which an underlying informational medium contributes its own, well-defined share to the cosmic energy budget.

The starting point is a causal–symmetric picture of reality: the universe is not only determined by initial conditions in the distant past, but also by final conditions in the far future. Between these two temporal boundaries, an informational medium links past and future and keeps track of how far the actual state of the universe deviates from a special reference state compatible with both ends. Earlier papers have already shown how this medium can explain quantum nonlocality, the emergence of spacetime, a topological structure of space, a dynamical speed of light and gravity as an equation of state of information. The new article adds a missing piece: it shows how this same medium naturally carries an “informational energy” that behaves, on large scales, much like a dark-energy component.

Crucially, the work does not modify the familiar energy concepts used in experiments. Locally, observers still see the standard mass–energy relation and the usual connection between frequency and energy. What changes is the composition of the total energy: in addition to ordinary matter and radiation, there is now a cleanly defined contribution from the informational medium. In a homogeneous universe, this informational energy density is determined by two quantities that already appear in the previous causal–symmetric framework: a coupling that measures how strongly the temporal boundaries are linked to the interior, and a measure of how far the actual cosmic state is from the preferred reference state. When this informational term is small, one recovers standard general relativity and quantum field theory to excellent accuracy. When it grows, it provides a controlled, dynamical dark-energy-like effect instead of an arbitrary cosmological constant added by hand.

The article also clarifies how this picture fits together conceptually. Energy keeps its geometric meaning from general relativity: it is still defined by how the total stress–energy tensor projects onto an observer’s point of view. The informational sector simply adds an extra, well-structured piece to that tensor. In the presence of the informational medium, the total mass of any region can be viewed as the sum of two parts, one from ordinary matter and one from informational energy, both entering the same mass–energy relation. This unifies three themes that are often treated separately: the arrow of time, the value of the invariant speed and the origin of dark-energy-like behaviour. All three are shown to arise from the same informational substrate that connects the beginning and the end of the cosmos.

The significance of this work lies in the perspective it opens on the question “What is energy?”. Rather than introducing yet another mysterious dark component, it suggests that part of what we call cosmic energy is the macroscopic reflection of deeper informational structure. The fate of the universe, the behaviour of dark-energy-like components and the familiar mass–energy relation all become aspects of how far the informational medium is from equilibrium and how strongly past and future are tied together.

You can find the full scientific article at:

Elias Rubenstein (2025): Informational Energy in a Causal–Symmetric Framework for Spacetime
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17598209