Quantum field fluctuations are the more strongly correlated the smaller their spacetime distance. As a consequence, the very notion of distance can be replaced by the notion of correlation strength. This suggests a picture in which all degrees of freedom are described by the same abstract structure, namely (multi-point) correlators, a picture which is essentially information theoretic. At low energies, these abstract correlators possess a mathematical representation as the correlation functions of matter fields that live on a curved spacetime with a definite causal structure. As one approaches the Planck scale, the abstract correlators may no longer possess such a representation, thereby superseding the notions of matter and of spacetime, but the abstract correlators can still be examined information theoretically.