In modern storytelling, particularly when aiming to evoke awe or fear, has science fiction effectively become the replacement for the myths and magic of the past? Historically, we relied on tales of gods, spirits, and demons to inspire those feelings. Today, almost no contemporary narrative achieves this in quite the same way. It is true that stories involving demons still exist, but we almost invariably classify them as fantasy, and we “know” they are not real. Yet the possibility of truth—however remote—is precisely what once enabled those older tales to provoke awe and fear.

In the past, demons and ghosts served this function. Today, it seems to me that science fiction has taken up that role. Good science fiction carries the implicit suggestion:
“This could happen.”
That “maybe” operates on the same psychological lever that myths once used.

Modern fantasy, by contrast, is less concerned with inducing genuine awe or fear and is more often focused on: symbolic storytelling, escapism, exploring archetypes, nostalgia for a world in which the supernatural was “real”

Whereas science fiction engages with the new unknown—the unknown that could plausibly exist, that could lie beyond our present abilities or understanding, and thus has the capacity to induce terror or wonder.

An extremely advanced alien civilisation, to whom we might be comparable to livestock, becomes functionally analogous to “gods” (when portrayed as noble) or “demons” (when portrayed as malevolent) in ancient myth. Not because they are gods or demons, but because they evoke the same emotional and psychological responses that those figures once inspired.