Let’s assume: consciousness is irrelevant to information or time.
Speak from the perspective of within a molecule.
Information would be _whatever_ it is that flows in or out of the object. Exchange of electrons. Exchange of heat. Call it information.
Does that help?
The scientists are gone. Humanity is dead. All consciousness ceases yet the Universe continues and Time and Information continues without our presence. The lacks of the subject DRAW INTO itself the information it lacks (it’s not hunger or ‘want’ but an imbalance for it attempts (not consciously) correction.
Time is an emergent phenomenon upon the.. I hate to say ‘needs’.. but ‘lacks/wants’ might be better – of the subject, creating information flow “to itself”(dative) – FROM what’s around it.
Such an effect is observable from the outside but the nature of the Time is unrelated entirely to observation by a third party. Each subject makes its own time based upon its needs for information.