# eternity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 18, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459 "2003-07-18T20:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459/21 "2003-07-21T12:32:51Z")
eternity is incomrihensible to us as we he limited minds. To be able to comprehend forever and eternity, you must have a limitless brain, able to comprehend all. Maybe someday we will, as we’re only using abt 10% of out brain’s capacity at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459/22 "2003-07-21T12:42:35Z")
> [@](#): > > we’re only using abt 10% of out brain’s capacity at the moment. This is a [misleading](http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm) old-wives tale. The brain is not solely composed of nerves - there are fat cells, blood vessels, all kinds of “support” for the actual neurons which make up the bulk of the brain. There is no reason to suspect that the average brain is not working at or near its full cognitive capacity. ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459/23 "2003-07-21T13:31:01Z")
right, thanks for clearing that up. I wonder how it would be if we were all brain body builders, eg building up our brain to it’s full extent and using most parts or all parts all the time. Would we be able to retain more knowledge? And what about that 3 memories theory? Short term - long term, the fact that we store every single thing we hear and see but cannot access it (as some autistic people can), and the genetic memory (we know everything our direct ancestors once knew, but can’t access it either). had a look at your [snoopes.com](http://snoopes.com) site, but did not find any references whther this was also an urban legend or not. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459/24 "2003-07-21T14:10:50Z")
Regarding the “death of the universe” couldn’t humans survive the death of the stars? Suppose we had a planet like Jupiter (chock full of hydrogen). We could set up shop on one of the Jovian moons, and keep ourselves warm with fusion reactors. Mankind couldlive, given an infinite supply of hydrogen Who knows, maybe human eyes will witness the birth of the NEXT universe! ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459/25 "2003-07-21T17:58:01Z")
You would have to find a kind of hydrogen that doesn’t contain protons- here is a timescale of the end of the universe- please note this has a different estimate for proton decay to the one I used earlier… [http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/timescales.html](http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/timescales.html) even if GUT decay doesn’t destroy matter, Hawking decay is supposed to (much later). but the end result is - no solid matter to speak of. * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eternity/189459.md?page=1)