Physicists have spent a century trying to reconcile the smooth fabric of spacetime in general relativity with the jittery quantum fields that govern particles, and gravity has stubbornly resisted every attempt to fit it neatly into the quantum picture. A growing camp now argues that the way out is to stop treating gravity as fundamental at all and instead see it as a side effect of information and entropy, the same concepts that describe how data is stored and how heat flows. In that view, the force that keeps planets in orbit and galaxies bound together might be a kind of statistical illusion, emerging from the collective behavior of microscopic quantum bits.
The latest push in this direction suggests that the geometry of spacetime itself could be encoded in patterns of quantum information, and that what we call gravity is simply how that information rearranges as entropy increases. If that bold idea holds up, it could finally give physicists a common language for quantum mechanics and relativity, not by tweaking either theory at the edges but by reimagining gravity as a thermodynamic phenomenon.
Why gravity is still the odd one out
When I talk to physicists about the biggest open problems in their field, the same tension comes up again and again: quantum mechanics works astonishingly well for atoms and particles, while general relativity captures the behavior of stars, black holes, and the expanding universe, yet the two frameworks refuse to mesh. At the heart of the conflict is gravity, which in Einstein’s picture is not a force in the usual sense but the curvature of spacetime itself, something so smooth and continuous that it clashes with the discrete, probabilistic nature of quantum theory. Attempts to quantize gravity directly, by treating the gravitational field like any other quantum field, have led to infinities and mathematical dead ends.
That impasse is why the search for a theory of quantum gravity has become a kind of organizing principle for modern theoretical physics, driving work on string theory, loop quantum gravity, and a host of more speculative ideas. In a recent overview of this challenge, researchers stressed that any successful approach has to explain not just how spacetime geometry responds to matter and energy, but how that geometry might itself arise from deeper microscopic degrees of freedom, linking the smooth curves of relativity to the granular structure of quantum states in a single coherent framework, a point underscored in a detailed discussion of the challenge of quantum gravity.
The entropic turn: from forces to information
One of the most provocative responses to this stalemate has been to flip the usual logic and treat gravity not as a basic interaction but as an emergent, thermodynamic effect. In this picture, the familiar pull we attribute to mass is really the statistical tendency of a system to move toward states with higher entropy, the same principle that explains why heat flows from hot coffee into a cold room. The idea is that when matter changes position, it alters the information content of some underlying microscopic degrees of freedom, and the resulting change in entropy shows up macroscopically as what we interpret as a gravitational force.
This line of thought is often grouped under the label Entropic gravity, which treats gravity as a kind of entropic force similar in spirit to the effective forces that arise in polymer physics or fluid dynamics. In that framework, the motion of a test particle near a massive body is not driven by a fundamental field but by the system’s drive to maximize entropy, encoded in information associated with surfaces or “screens” in spacetime. The proposal has sparked intense debate, with some researchers exploring its implications for cosmology and dark matter, and others arguing that it struggles to reproduce all the precision tests that general relativity has already passed.
Emergent gravity and the cosmic scale
Closely related to entropic gravity is a broader family of ideas often described as emergent gravity, which treat spacetime and its curvature as large scale phenomena arising from more fundamental microscopic ingredients. In these models, the geometry we experience is analogous to the elasticity of a solid or the viscosity of a fluid, properties that make sense only when you average over enormous numbers of atoms. The hope is that by identifying the right underlying degrees of freedom and the right statistical rules, gravity will fall out naturally as a kind of collective behavior, rather than something that needs to be quantized in the usual way.
Some of the most discussed emergent gravity scenarios try to account for puzzling astronomical observations, such as the way galaxies rotate and the apparent need for dark matter, by tweaking how gravity behaves at very low accelerations or in regions of low density. In one influential version, the theory is built on the idea that spacetime carries a kind of entanglement entropy that changes with the distribution of matter, leading to modified gravitational dynamics on galactic scales, a strategy that has been examined in depth in analyses of what emergent gravity might mean for the way gravity behaves in regions of low density.
Ginestra Bianconi’s “gravity from entropy” proposal
Into this landscape steps Physicist Ginestra Bianconi, who has put forward a fresh version of the entropic program that tries to connect quantum information directly to the structure of spacetime. Her work starts from the premise that quantum systems carry entropy not just in their energy levels but in the way their states are entangled, and that this quantum information entropy can be organized in network like structures. By treating these networks as the scaffolding from which spacetime geometry emerges, she argues that gravitational effects can be derived as a consequence of how entropy is distributed and how it changes when matter moves.
What makes this “gravity from entropy” approach stand out is its ambition to serve as a genuine bridge between quantum mechanics and relativity, rather than a modification of one or the other in isolation. Bianconi’s framework treats the microscopic quantum information as primary and the smooth spacetime of general relativity as a kind of large scale approximation that becomes valid when you average over many quantum degrees of freedom. In that sense, her proposal is explicitly framed as a radical new route to unification, with the claim that “Gravity from entropy” represents a bold attempt to connect quantum information entropy to the geometry of spacetime in a way that could address one of science’s grandest quests.
How entropy could sculpt spacetime
To understand how entropy might give rise to gravity in practice, it helps to think in terms of information stored on surfaces and in networks, rather than in the bulk of space. In many entropic gravity models, the key quantity is the entropy associated with a boundary that encloses some matter, which can be thought of as counting the number of microscopic configurations consistent with the macroscopic state. When a particle moves relative to that boundary, the number of accessible microstates changes, and the resulting gradient in entropy translates into an effective force that nudges the particle along a particular trajectory, which we then interpret as motion in a curved spacetime.
Bianconi’s contribution is to recast those boundaries and surfaces as complex networks of quantum information, where links represent entanglement between quantum degrees of freedom and nodes represent localized bits of information. In that picture, the curvature of spacetime is not a primitive geometric object but a statistical summary of how entanglement and entropy are distributed across the network. When matter moves or quantum states change, the pattern of entanglement shifts, altering the entropy landscape and, in turn, the effective geometry that particles follow. This is the sense in which her work suggests that gravity is not a fundamental interaction but a manifestation of how quantum information entropy organizes itself across scales.
Why some physicists remain deeply skeptical
For all its conceptual appeal, the entropic view of gravity has met with sharp criticism from many experts who argue that it has yet to deliver clear, testable predictions that go beyond what general relativity already explains. One recurring concern is that the models often rely on highly idealized setups, such as perfectly spherical screens or simplified entanglement patterns, which may not survive contact with the messy complexity of real astrophysical systems. Another is that some derivations of Newton’s law or Einstein’s equations within the entropic framework seem to smuggle in key assumptions that are mathematically equivalent to the usual gravitational laws, raising questions about whether the approach is genuinely explanatory or simply a clever rephrasing.
Mark Van Raamsdonk, a physicist at the University of British Columbia, has been particularly vocal about these limitations, arguing that many of the current models do not yet capture the full richness of how gravity behaves, especially in regimes where it is weak or where quantum effects should be most pronounced. In a recent assessment of these ideas, he expressed doubt that the existing entropic constructions can reproduce all the known features of gravitational interactions, including the detailed way spacetime responds to matter in different configurations, and he emphasized that any successful theory must match the precision tests of general relativity while also explaining how gravity behaves when it is weak, concerns that were laid out explicitly in a discussion of Mark Van Raamsdonk and his skepticism about whether these models really align with gravity as we observe it.
Testing a long shot: where theory meets observation
The real test for any entropic or emergent gravity proposal is whether it can be confronted with data, and that is where the field still faces its steepest climb. On solar system scales, general relativity has passed every experimental check so far, from the precession of Mercury’s orbit to the timing of signals from the Cassini spacecraft, which means any alternative must reproduce those successes to high precision. On galactic and cosmological scales, where dark matter and dark energy enter the picture, emergent gravity models sometimes promise to explain rotation curves or cosmic acceleration without invoking unseen components, but they then have to match the full suite of observations, including gravitational lensing, structure formation, and the cosmic microwave background.
Some entropic gravity scenarios have tried to carve out a niche by focusing on regimes where gravity is extremely weak, such as the outskirts of galaxies or the low acceleration environments probed by precise stellar surveys. The hope is that subtle deviations from Newtonian expectations in those regions could signal the influence of entropy driven effects, offering a way to distinguish emergent gravity from standard dark matter models. Yet as Van Raamsdonk and others have pointed out, the current formulations often struggle to produce unambiguous, falsifiable predictions about how gravity behaves when it is weak, a shortcoming highlighted in analyses that examine whether these ideas can really account for how gravity behaves when it is weak in the context of long shot entropic models.
What success would mean for quantum gravity
If a gravity from entropy framework were to clear those hurdles, the payoff would be enormous, not just for gravity but for our understanding of the universe at every scale. A successful entropic model would provide a concrete mechanism for how spacetime geometry emerges from quantum information, turning the abstract idea that “it from qubit” into a working theory. That, in turn, could clarify long standing puzzles about black holes, such as how information is preserved when matter falls past the event horizon, by treating the horizon’s entropy as a bookkeeping device for the underlying quantum degrees of freedom rather than a mysterious thermodynamic quantity tacked onto classical geometry.
More broadly, unifying gravity with quantum mechanics through entropy would reshape how physicists think about fundamental laws, shifting the focus from forces and fields to information and statistics. Instead of asking how particles move in a pre existing spacetime, the central question would become how patterns of entanglement and entropy give rise to both particles and spacetime together, with gravity emerging as a large scale reflection of those microscopic patterns. In that sense, the stakes of Bianconi’s work and related efforts are not just about solving a technical problem in theoretical physics, but about reframing what counts as “fundamental” in the first place, a theme that runs through recent discussions of how quantum gravity might link spacetime geometry and matter.
Why the entropy idea keeps coming back
Even with all the open questions, I find it telling that entropy and information keep resurfacing whenever physicists push on the deepest layers of reality. From the thermodynamics of black holes to the holographic principle and the role of entanglement in quantum field theory, the same concepts that describe how data is stored and processed seem to be woven into the fabric of spacetime itself. The entropic gravity program, in all its variations, is one of the most explicit attempts to take that hint seriously and build a full theory around it, rather than treating entropy as a side calculation tacked onto an otherwise classical picture of gravity.
Whether Physicist Ginestra Bianconi’s “gravity from entropy” framework or any of its cousins ultimately survives detailed scrutiny, the effort is already reshaping the questions theorists ask about the universe. By forcing a conversation about how quantum information entropy might generate the geometry we usually take for granted, these models push the field to think more carefully about what spacetime really is and how it might emerge from something more primitive. In that sense, the bold idea that gravity could be a thermodynamic effect is less a final answer than a powerful lens, one that could help bring quantum mechanics and relativity into sharper focus on the same page, even if the final theory ends up looking different from any of the current entropic sketches.
More from MorningOverview