12.1 Dark Energy: The Ashes of Information

When we look up at the night sky, we see stars. But astronomers tell us that those glowing stars, massive galaxies, even diffuse nebulae, together account for less than 5% of the universe’s total energy.

The remaining 95% is dark. The most mysterious part is called dark energy (Dark Energy). It occupies about 70% of the universe, uniformly fills every inch of space, and seems tirelessly pushing cosmic accelerated expansion.

Physicists are deeply puzzled. Where does this energy come from? Why is its density such a specific value ($10^{-10}J/m^3$)? If you try to calculate vacuum zero-point energy using standard quantum field theory, you get an absurd result $10^{120}$ times larger than observed. This is physics history’s worst prediction.

But in our “computational universe” model, dark energy is no longer an elusive ghost; it is an inevitable bill.

Landauer’s Curse

To understand dark energy, we must first understand the cost of forgetting.

In 1961, physicist Rolf Landauer proposed a shocking principle: Information erasure is a physical process.

When we write information, it can theoretically be energy-free. But when we delete information (resetting a bit from random state to 0), we must emit heat to the environment. This is called Landauer’s Principle.

The formula is extremely simple: erasing 1 bit of information requires at least $E=k_{B}T\ln 2$ energy, where $T$ is environmental temperature.

This is like your computer. CPU generates heat as long as it computes (flips bits). That fan’s hot air is essentially waste heat produced when information is processed, overwritten, erased.

The Universe’s Standby Power

Now, let us return to our Hilbert Space. According to Axiom A1, the universe is a system evolving at constant rate $c$. This means even in empty vacuum, underlying quantum cells (QCA) are frantically jumping.

Although vacuum appears “empty,” at microscopic scales it performs vast, though mediocre, computations. States constantly flip, entanglements constantly form and break.

In this process, information constantly flows. And in any universe with a horizon (Horizon) (our universe has causal horizons), information inevitably gets “lost” beyond the horizon. Or, to maintain vacuum’s purity (low entropy), the universe must constantly “erase” chaotic information outward.

This erasure requires payment.

This payment is energy.

In our geometric reconstruction, dark energy is not a fluid “existing” in space; it is the “electricity bill” space itself must pay to maintain its computational existence.

It is the universe computer’s noise floor (Noise Floor).

An Astonishing Coincidence

This theory sounds philosophical, but can it withstand numerical tests?

Let us calculate.

1. Universe temperature ($T$): In empty universe, relevant temperature is Gibbons-Hawking Temperature, determined by universe’s horizon radius. This is an extremely low temperature ($T\sim 10^{-29}K$).

2. Erasure energy ($E$): According to Landauer’s principle, $E\approx k_{B}T$.

3. Erasure rate ($\dot{n}$): If we assume every Planck unit in vacuum participates in some form of background fluctuations, producing information exchange.

When we substitute these values into formulas, calculating power density produced by this “information erasure,” a shocking result appears:

Our estimated energy density matches in order of magnitude with astronomers’ observed dark energy density ${\rho }_{\Lambda }$.

$${\rho }_{\Lambda }\approx \text{Information Erasure Rate}\times \text{Landauer Cost}$$

This is no longer that absurd prediction $10^{120}$ times larger. This is a prediction near the bull’s eye.

The Essence of Expansion

This gives cosmic expansion a completely new explanation.

Why is the universe accelerating? Because computation produces heat, and heat produces pressure.

Dark energy appears as “negative pressure” (repulsive force) because it is essentially a thermodynamic potential energy inside vacuum. This potential energy comes from the universe’s tendency to “make room” to accommodate more computational results.

Or in more poetic language: the universe expands because it is thinking.

Every quantum fluctuation, every virtual particle’s birth and death, is a tiny computation. Waste heat (entropy) produced by these computations cannot be eliminated from nothing; it can only be diluted by stretching space.

Dark energy in our eyes is actually ashes of information. It is entropy the universe must continuously expel to maintain its logical coherence.

This gives us new awe for the universe’s future. The universe is not heading toward death; it is heading toward maximum computational capacity.

But since the universe’s computational power is so strong (producing dark energy filling the entire universe), why is the material world we see so ordered? Why hasn’t this giant computer crashed from overheating?

This involves an ultimate number about “yield rate.” In the next section, we will explore that famous $10^{-123}$, seeing how it defines the possibility of our existence.

（Next, we will enter section 12.2 “The Revelation of $10^{-123}$,” interpreting this mysterious number representing cosmic computational precision.）