What if some alien civilization had the technology to strip not just the earth of all gold but also from satellites surrounding the globe in space? Think like Bad Guys 2 movie near the end.
I didn’t write “should” because my first thought goes to tech that we use already that relies on gold being a part of the equipment. It gets worse when I imagine people having gold teeth and then gets even worse when I think about health tech that could also be using gold for some reason (fake hearts?).
Anyway, it’s kind of a nightmare scenario in my mind.
I’d be more worried about rare earth metals like ruthenium or iridium. They’re used in many industries, not least in chlor-alkali electrolysis which is often used for water purification.