The Ontology of Information: Energy Texture, Constraint Encoding, Barrier Diffusion and the Physics of Meaning

What is information, physically? This document provides the constitutional answer within the Energy-Efficiency Theory framework. Information is not an abstract mathematical quantity, nor a primitive of the universe, nor a mere empirical generalization about communication channels. Information is the third register of difference: the structured correlation patterns among maintained Beings, constitutionally derived from the Triple Register Theorem of Difference v3. 3. Version 3. 4 is a comprehensive constitutional upgrade. It establishes that information has two constitutionally distinct layers: basal information (L2) --- the natural patterns of the substrate's inhomogeneous operation, the precursor of information, free and inexhaustible, requiring no constraint boundary and no maintenance power --- and constraint-grounded information (L3) --- a specific basal pattern selected by a Distinction operation, bounded by a constraint boundary, and sustained by maintenance power as a physically encoded message. Constraint-grounded information is Being, possessing constrained-state energy and therefore inertial mass (Being = Matter). The document systematically derives information's five constitutional attributes from the Triple Register Theorem, its economic chain from the Economics of Difference, its propagation dynamics from the Arrhenius barrier diffusion framework (constitutionally identical to constraint meltdown dynamics --- not an analogy, but the same physical quantity), and its degeneration dynamics from the Five-Channel Complete Constraint Second Law (CND v4. 0, CLOSED-in-EET). Each of the four degeneration modes identified in v3. 3 is the expression of a specific channel failure in the five-channel framework. The constitutional identity A₁₈ₓ = A₄₄ₓ = /2 is upgraded from STANDARD to CLOSED-in-EET, anchored in the Bifurcation Duality Theorem (Two Forms of Energy v3. 4, 10). Two constitutionally independent derivation paths --- the information-theoretic Landauer path and the energy-bifurcation path --- converge on the same irreducible action quantum. One Distinction, one bit, one formation event: /2. New constitutional content in v3. 4 includes: Information = Matter --- six physical consequences of the Being = Matter identity, including gravitational limits on information storage density, inertial resistance in template transmission, and the Einstein limit on sustainable information mass. Economic asymmetries of information --- creation vs. \ access, creation vs. \ erasure (Creative Asymmetry), storage vs. \ creation (A6 asymptotic dominance), and old information vs. \ new information. A dedicated Part on the constitutional boundaries and epistemic status of information --- its L0 epistemic status as Proper Pseudo-Truth, its jurisdictional boundary (N 2 required), its behavior at N=0 (transient information capacity Cₕ₀₂), and the constitutional distinctions between information, knowledge, semantics, and truth. A complete academic priority registration (Appendix A) documenting EET's position on twenty unresolved controversies in the study of information. Keywords: information ontology; constraint-grounded information; basal information; difference theory; Arrhenius barrier diffusion; five-channel degeneration; Landauer bound; Bifurcation Duality Theorem; Information = Matter; Energy-Efficiency Theory.