Alarmed by Professor Blackburn's argument that, as a matter of logic, it did not matter whether the human race existed, and not persuaded by Professor O'Hear’s refutation (SPA June 2008 pp 12-13), I urgently consulted my dog.

To my surprise, there had been a canine pheromone exchange on the parallel issue. 

Dogs, it turns out, are totally relaxed about non-eternity one way or the other. They are unconcerned because, even if long-haired breeds survive climate change, the Kennel Club is likely to genetically modify them into something unrecognisable in the next twenty years.

However, since it is axiomatic that the purpose of life is to chase rabbits when nothing is on heat, dogs seem rather perplexed by the whole human hang-up.

Was it not because humans had to have narratives before they could do anything that they get bored throwing balls when dogs don't get bored fetching them? The dog had particular difficulty with the word 'matter' (as in, would human extinction matter?). Presumably if human existence did not matter, it did not matter that it did not matter.

‘Whereof there is not much point barking, thereof one must be silent,’ as Wittgenstein's Papillion used to say.

Professor David Fisk Imperial College London