system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why was gold valued to all cultures and regions of the world in ancient times?

Europe, the Americas, China, etc never fully met in the ancient times yet all understood
that gold was valuable. Why?


My guess is aliens!


{/u/Schlafenkopf asked this in a 
comment somewhere and I need to know now}
gpt
Gold is largely unreactive, so does not tarnish. This is a big one. It will always look shiny. And, importantly, that means that when you find it in the ground it is as nuggets of gold, not some boring looking rock that you have to crush and smelt. There's no essential processing required.

Secondly, it's quite a soft metal so it is easy to work. It can be drawn into wires without too much difficulty, and is therefore capable of forming exceptionally elaborate jewellery even with simple equipment.

So it would always have been an attractive and useful material. The reason it becomes valuable is because it's limited supply.

In the modern era we've also discovered it has some very useful electrical and thermal properties - it's a fantastic electrical conductor, so it used in many electronic components. That places further demand on a limited supply, so the price is maintained.