Gravitational Modulation of Entropy Information Density: Time as Observational Artifact of Local Horizon Entropy Variance

Building on the entropy debt framework established in the companion paper (Huang, 2026, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20036848), this work advances the stronger claim that time, as an independent fundamental physical quantity, is a redundant ontological assumption. We propose that all phenomena attributed to "time" — including gravitational time dilation, the arrow of time, and causal ordering — can be fully re-described in terms of spatial differences in entropy information density without introducing time as a primitive. We define Horizon Entropy Variance (HEV) as the systematic difference in local entropy information density between observers at different gravitational potentials, and argue that what is conventionally labelled "time flowing at different rates" is more precisely described as observers inhabiting regions of differing entropy information density. We further develop a two-scale structure — macro-determinism and local entropy compensation — that reconciles thermodynamic irreversibility with the apparent spontaneity of local informational events such as thought, choice, and creativity. The framework is evaluated against Occam's Razor: time as a fundamental quantity is retained only if it provides explanatory content beyond what entropy information density already supplies.