Time as a Fundamental Agent in the Unification of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (Preprint)

This is Version 2.0 of the preprint originally published under the same DOI root. The updated version strengthens the theoretical framework by introducing a formal LaTeX structure, mathematical derivations, and testable predictions. The work reformulates the concept of time as an emergent and relational agent, derived from entropy and observation, and dissociable from space under extreme gravitational regimes. Gravity influences both space and time, but not identically: in black holes, space collapses while time approaches an asymptotic limit. The photon, with zero proper time yet subject to spatial curvature, acts as the mediator connecting observer, gravity, and information. This version corrects conceptual inconsistencies from the initial release, removes speculative analogies, and expands the theoretical foundation to ensure the proposal can only be validated or refuted through experimental observations, such as quantum clocks in gravitational fields, analysis of Hawking radiation, and comparisons between gravitational lensing and temporal dilation.