* Seth Lloyd is a professor of mechanical engineering and physics at MIT. He has developed significant theories connecting information to fundamental physics. * In his 2006 book Programming the Universe, Lloyd details a computational model of the universe based on quantum information processing. He suggests the universe itself is an enormous quantum computer. * Lloyd extends Wheeler and Bekenstein’s “it from bit” concept by proposing a specific model for how matter emerges from information. * His model describes matter as arising from quantum fluctuations in spacetime, which can be viewed as computational operations on binary information bits. This provides a hypothesis for the emergence of matter from an informational substrate. * According to Lloyd, as spacetime fluctuates at the Planck scale, it essentially performs logical operations on information bits contained within Planck scale cubes. When enough quantum computational steps are performed, stable matter emerges. * He provides estimates for how long this process would take to generate stable matter, as well as the information storage capacity of the universe based on this model. * Lloyd also proposes hypotheses for time’s arrow and quantum measurements arising from this underlying quantum computation. His model aims to explain both quantum and cosmological scale phenomena. * While speculative, Lloyd’s computational model formalizes the “it from bit” paradigm into a detailed framework for deriving the material universe from quantum information processing underlying spacetime itself. His ideas have influenced other theorists working at the intersection of quantum information and quantum gravity. * Other theorists influenced by Seth Lloyd’s computational model of the universe include Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who proposed binary alternatives or “ur-alternatives” as the fundamental building blocks of reality. * Physicist David Deutsch has cited influence from Lloyd’s model in developing his constructor theory of information, which models physics in terms of information processing constraints. * Cosmologist Max Tegmark builds on Lloyd’s framework in his mathematical universe hypothesis, proposing that mathematical structures directly correspond to physical reality. * In quantum gravity, theorists like Michael Nielsen have connected Lloyd’s computational view of spacetime to causal set theory and quantum graphity approaches that model spacetime as an informational network. * Lloyd’s model relates to current research at the intersection of quantum information theory and quantum gravity, including using quantum information concepts to investigate holographic duality and black hole information paradoxes. * Potential implications of Lloyd’s model include providing a framework for deriving an “arrow of time” from quantum computational steps underlying spacetime, as well as explaining seemingly fine-tuned universal constants from informational origins. * If validated, the model would imply our entire material universe emerges from the dynamics of quantum information embedded within the fabric of spacetime. This would be a profound shift in our understanding of the cosmos and reality itself as fundamentally informational. * However, Lloyd’s ideas remain highly speculative and are not widely accepted physical models. Significant further research is needed to substantiate any connections between information processing and the emergence of matter and physical law.