THE MODAL DISCIPLINE OF LOCALITY AND MASS–ENERGY CONSERVATION: a critical–propositional analysis of the article On the Applicability Boundaries of Mass-Energy Conservation and the Concept of Locality in General Relativity—Toward a Thermodynamic Extension of General Relativity, by Shi Chaojie, in confrontation with the Theory of Objectivity

This article offers a critical–propositional examination of Shi Chaojie’s study On the Applicability Boundaries of Mass-Energy Conservation and the Concept of Locality in General Relativity—Toward a Thermodynamic Extension of General Relativity, in confrontation with the Theory of Objectivity (TO). The study investigates Shi’s central claim that the conventional interpretation of mass-energy conservation in general relativity depends on an insufficiently clarified notion of locality, and that this conceptual weakness opens the way for a thermodynamic reconsideration of relativistic physics. The article argues that Shi’s work is philosophically significant because it identifies a genuine tension between local covariance, global non-conservation in cosmology, and the explanatory limits of concepts often treated as self-evident in modern physics. In this sense, the paper recognizes the value of Shi’s critique of the vague extension of infinitesimal locality to finite regions, as well as his careful distinction between mass-energy equivalence and mass-energy conservation. At the same time, the present article argues that Shi’s proposal remains programmatic, phenomenological, and conjectural. Its more ambitious claims—especially those concerning intrinsic rest-mass dissipation, irreversible length contraction, the thermodynamic fate of civilizations, and the reinterpretation of singularities—are examined critically under the modal discipline of the Theory of Objectivity. The analysis therefore distinguishes between what is conceptually fruitful, what is heuristically suggestive, and what still lacks sufficient ontological and operational grounding. Drawing on the foundational bibliography of TO, its recent modal and testability-oriented developments, and a broader dialogue with relativity, thermodynamics, philosophy of physics, and cosmology, the article proposes that the Theory of Objectivity provides a more rigorous ontological grammar for evaluating such frontier hypotheses. In particular, the discussion articulates Shi’s proposals with the Seven Absolute Truths of TO, the phenomenic elements, the Inductive Effects, the cosmogonic theorem, and the cosmological Eras of the Theory of Objectivity. The article concludes that Shi’s work should be welcomed as a valuable conceptual interlocutor for contemporary foundational debates, but not yet as a sufficient ontological reconstruction of the universe. Its greatest contribution lies in exposing unresolved tensions within the phenomenological language of modern physics and in inviting a more disciplined reflection on locality, conservation, irreversibility, and cosmic intelligibility. Keywords: Theory of Objectivity; general relativity; locality; mass-energy conservation; thermodynamics; modal ontology; irreversibility; phenomenic elements; inductive effects; philosophy of physics; cosmology; singularities.