Why? What's the "inherent value" of gold or silver, except the value that we ascribe to it and the value that it has for things like industrial uses as determined by supply and demand? Why isn't platinum true money? Or dodo bird bones? Or stones? What makes gold and silver so special?
Frankly, saying "pork bellies and pumpkins are the only true money" would have made more sense - at least you can eat those.
Have you met 24KT?
You're right. Things only have human value that humans apply value to. Sea shells, corn, beads, salt, animals, etc have all been used as money. Gold and silver came out the winners historically because they fit the requirements of 'money' better than the rest. Portability, fungability, divisibility, rarity, etc. In a strange coincidence the historical mining of gold and silver increases known totals roughly 3% a year and this seems to mirror the average mean increases of human GDP.
If we returned to gold and silver as currency its quantities should hold the purchasing power of already circulating monies so people wouldn't be losing the fruits of their labors to central banks and governments inflating for their personal gains.