Singularity-Proximate Order: A Relational Framework for Time, Entropy, and Gravitational Complexity

This paper proposes a unified relational framework connecting time, entropy, gravity, and the conditions for complexity and life. The central claim is that entropy is not one quantity but a family of at least four distinct measures — thermodynamic, gravitational, informational, and a proposed fifth: singularity-distance entropy, measuring geometric separation from a local gravitational centre — that current physics conflates, producing contradictions at extreme scales. Time is proposed as a local property constituted by gravitational binding hierarchy rather than a universal background parameter, approaching zero at singularity proximity and becoming undefined outside binding relationships. Gravity is proposed as three qualitatively distinct regimes — spacetime depression, sinkhole geometry, and residual Newtonian attraction — conflated by current theory into one. The speed of light is proposed as a tension-dependent property of spacetime fabric, maintained across both expansion and contraction phases of a cyclic universe as long as tension persists. Complexity and observation are possible only in the middle-distance dissipative zone between singularity proximity and maximum expansion — a geometric quarantine that structurally isolates middle-distance observers from simpler life populations near both edges of the expansion sequence. Ghost fields in gauge theory are identified as indicators of framework incompleteness rather than mathematical conveniences. Together these proposals constitute a reframing of several foundational assumptions in current cosmological and quantum theory, positioned as a philosophical-physics framework for further formal development.