What have electrons, black holes and Clifford Algebra ever done for us?

  Or, dark energy is the thermodynamic cost of maintaining quantum error correction (QEC) in an expanding computational substrate—spacetime itself is a quantum code . In a QEC spacetime, you don’t need a literal CPU (this isn't The  Matrix ). The computation is encoded in the dynamics of the underlying microscopic degrees of freedom, and topological protection ensures coherence. The “code” and the “hardware” are unified.     1. Introduction Dark energy is commonly modelled as a cosmological constant, a fluid, or a scalar field. We explore another idea kicking around: dark energy is the computational cost of maintaining quantum coherence in spacetime. This framework can unify three previously distinct approaches: Viscoelastic / stochastic spacetime : local elastic and viscous responses, stochastic stress from coarse-grained quantum fluctuations Topological Berry phase : global invariants of the vacuum manifold, protecting $\Lambda$ QEC / computational : microscop...

Dark Energy as a Viscoelastic Stochastic Medium The cosmological dark sector can be understood as a relativistic viscoelastic medium coupled to gravity via a stochastic Einstein–Langevin equation. ΛCDM emerges as a special limit of this more general framework.   1. Emergent Gravity, Elasticity, and Dissipation 1.1 Elasticity of Spacetime Gravity may be emergent rather than fundamental: Jacobson (1995) : Einstein equations as a thermodynamic equation of state, $\delta Q = T dS$. Padmanabhan : Spacetime behaves like an elastic solid; diffeomorphisms are deformations; horizons are defects carrying area entropy. Sakharov : Einstein–Hilbert action arises from induced metrical elasticity of quantum vacuum fluctuations. In this view, as we previously  discussed, spacetime is elastic at long wavelengths, with an effective modulus set by vacuum energy: $$Y_\Lambda = \frac{\Lambda c^4}{8\pi G} = \rho_\Lambda c^2.$$ This modulus corresponds to a "cosmic Young's modulus," g...