Something just occurred to me. A question, rather. Humans are diurnal creatures -- we are evolved to be active by day and quiescent at night. But throughout most the evolutionary history of our species the hours of darkness weren't just about resting and sleeping; night was associated with the very real danger of being killed and eaten by night-prowling natural enemies, and the fear and sense of vulnerability it inspired. As a result modern man, even though he no longer need fear being attacked by wild beasts, still feels a vague, nameless atavistic fear of darkness and of the state of helplessness engendered by the loss of visual awareness in the dark.
It then naturally follows that animals that have evolved to be active at night and are able to see well in darkness, like owls, cats and tarsiers, would lack a fear of it (outside the specific fear of predation that is, which anyway can happen in broad day as well). So does this mean that once technology has advanced to the point where our natural vision can be augmented or entirely replaced by perfect night vision, and we can see just as well in complete darkness as in daylight, we will no longer be afraid of the dark (although, I suppose by then darkness itself, at least in the physical sense, would logically have lost its meaning; so maybe that should be "afraid of '(supposedly)dark' places" instead), and as a result all the traditional stories of ghosts appearing at night and monsters in dark corners will have lost their power to frighten, and instead be relegated to a time in mankind's primitive past?
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