Ho hum, boring old gold. What a loser gold is. All it does is just sit there. <<Now, the beautiful, primordial, elemental, eternal, born of the stars ... >> All the elements on Earth are made from cooled down star fusion reactions and nuclear reactions in general.
How about those really cool semi-conductors that conduct electricity and which have enabled what we're doing now? Admittedly gold is useful for conductor contact to allow the electrons to flow, but that's no biggie.
Even boring old iron, the end-state of star reactions, has been vastly more useful than gold. Check out the Eiffel Tower for example, and swords used to rob Aztecs of their gold. It's also handy for making compasses which have performed long service in navigation. Gallium or gold as champion? How about the supreme element carbon, which can make diamonds, graphene, coal, oil, methane, dna or CO2 for plants which keep the planet alive? Carbon creates consciousness, with a little help from its friends, none of which are gold. Silicon might come to outrank carbon but for now carbon is champion. Silicon can even make optical fibre which combined with silicon chips is heading to replace human cognitive championship.
Gold might be the most boring of all elements. A quick mental scan of the elements doesn't come up with a better candidate.
Mqurice |
