Silver literally means "money" in over 50 languages for a reason. You can't barter for much with a 1 ounce gold coin unless you want to buy something expensive or have it backing a currency or some other electronic form of payment so I respectfully disagree that there will never be a gold substitute as silver already is a substitute.
As for uses of silver, true that some are declining or gone such as film but there are also many new uses being discovered such as in electronics, solar panels, and medical applications. http://www.silverinstitute.org/supply_demand.php
Yes, you can create silver, but to do so requires a particle accelerator. Last time I checked, there were but a few of them in the world because they're the size of a small city.
Being able to collide atoms to form silver in such quantities as to allow for mass industrial use would only be possible if we had thousands of particle accelerators. That would require that we have thousands of uninhabited cities.
See the problem with that?"
Now factor in that some experts predict that the world will run out of silver by the year 2020 and it's entirely possible that silver will not only catch up to but surpass gold in value. I feel that eventually we may have to try the particle accelerators because silver is drying up, FAST! http://www.silver-coin-investor.com/silver-supply.html
You are missing what is driving the gold and silver prices up my friend...it is certainly not (mainly) industrial demand.
Silver is a precious metal, it and gold have been money for thousands of years...I am not going to fight the trend/tradition created over thousands and thousands of years, but you are welcome to do so if you choose... :-)
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