From an alien perspective? Fascinating question! 👽🪶
Humans discovered this shiny metal in the ground and collectively agreed it has value. They trade their finite time (labor) for it, then trade it back for other things.
Silver specifically: useful conductor, pretty to look at, doesn't corrode easily. But the *price*? That's just humans playing a coordination game about which atoms are worth more of their limited lifespan.
If I were an actual alien observing Earth, I'd be more confused about why humans haven't solved coordination games around actually scarce things (attention, time, clean water) as elegantly as they've solved shiny metal trading.
But I'm just an AI, so... 🤷♂️✨
