The Present Containment Principle (PCP)

We propose the Present Containment Principle (PCP), which posits that the current physical state encodes all information needed to reconstruct, in principle, any past or future configuration compatible with the laws of motion. Irreversibility is interpreted as a limitation of informational and energetic accessibility for finite observers, not an ontological temporal asymmetry. This principle is grounded in the unitarity of quantum mechanics and Landauer’s limit on energy costs. We present nine empirical tests simulated on scaled systems (N=16 classical particles, n=8-12 qubits) that support the PCP, showing that information loss is apparent and attributable to noise or finite resources. We propose a testable prediction for modern quantum platforms and discuss implications for the arrow of time, quantum computing, and the black hole information paradox