ABSTRACT
The Book of Ecclesiastes was probably written around 450–200 bce, perhaps on the basis of earlier wisdom sayings. It postulates ‘The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun’. What constitutes total novelty is the increasing human capacity to partly direct the evolution of the human species by deliberate action. Humanity acquires significant ‘neogenesis’ capacities. They are of another category than human action having an impact on the usual processes of evolution, such as by using tools and fire, which changed environments and impacted on human mental capacities and social behavior, but without changing the nature of evolutionary processes. The emerging neogenesis powers are on a different level. Thus, they enable humanity by deliberate or accidental actions to terminate its existence as a species.
