Energy bends space-time, does energy create it?

CITA Colloquium (Sackler Lecture Series)
Donald Lynden-Bell (University of Cambridge)

Mach believed that space was Cartesian and inertial frames were determined by matter, so that all motion only had meaning if it were the motion of bodies relative to other bodies. Newtonian mechanics in a Universe with no total angular momentum can be recast in a form that agrees with Mach's precepts. Many of Mach's predictions are found within General Relativity although space is curved and matter is not the sole source of curvature. Mach's concepts can only be true in Relativity if space-time itself arises out of energy.