the "proper geometric shapes" for gold to become a semiconductor are nanocrystalline quantum dots, and the techonoly to produce them en masse is not there yet. plus the sheer cost of production would far excede the mere cost of the gold itself making it hugely expensive at this point. although I agree that there are probably benefits to be gained at using trinary or higher (7 = heptanary?) logic, it would be easier to develop photonic (instead of electronic) processors the rely on intertwinded resonant cavity modes of laser diodes to do this, since the optics technology is already commonplace. (NASA Tech Briefs publishes articles on research in this area periodically)
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the "proper geometric shapes" for gold to become a semiconductor are nanocrystalline quantum dots, and the techonoly to produce them en masse is not there yet. plus the sheer cost of production would far excede the mere cost of the gold itself making it hugely expensive at this point. although I agree that there are probably benefits to be gained at using trinary or higher (7 = heptanary?) logic, it would be easier to develop photonic (instead of electronic) processors the rely on intertwinded resonant cavity modes of laser diodes to do this, since the optics technology is already commonplace. (NASA Tech Briefs publishes articles on research in this area periodically)