Humans invent things. Sometimes we invent terms for things, or ways to measure things. But those are different from Things In Themselves.
For instance, humans invented weeks, but we merely named days. There is such a thing as a “day,” independent of humans. The Earth will spin its spin, half in shadow and half in light, whether we observe it or not. But a “week” is merely an arbitray grouping of repetitions of that process that we’ve named after old gods to help us organize when brunch with Margaret is.
We didn’t invent whales, though we invented the concept of calling them “whales,” and categorizing them as mammals, etc. There would be whales without us, but that would not be their name.
The Opportunity Machine 