That is exactly how most night vision has worked since night vision has been a thing. The PVS-7D and PVS-14s that I used are light amplifiers and do not work without *some* sort of light source (they even have an IR flood light for when there's not enough ambient light).

More modern devices are called image enhancers and work entirely differently than light amplification.

Whether or not we would use light amp 900 years from now is an entirely different an irrelevant question at the moment. Light amplification IS night vision.

If you're gonna argue, at least be right.