Could computer architecture be reworked to support switching from binary to ternary, for example?
Current computers use electronic parts which can easily distinguish between two states, by stating that high voltage = 0 and low voltage = 1, or vice versa. The hardware that is needed to combine two inputs x and y and produce an output equal to NAND (x, y) is very, very simple and any other logic can be produced very easily from this. 

Your task in proposing ternary computers: Suggest how with current electronic parts, three states can be represented. Then suggest what would be a primitive operation that combines two ternary inputs and produces an output; what that operation would be, and how you would implement it. Then suggest how you could for example add two integer numbers that are made of 40 trits (I think that's the name, I might be wrong). 

Of course your suggestion must not represent a trit using two binary states, because using two binary states you could easily represent four values with the same effort, which would surely be more efficient. So you might represent 0 = low voltage, 1 = medium voltage, 2 = high voltage. Have fun doing that reliably. (One problem that you have is that using low and high only, you can change states with force and therefore quickly. If you needed to change a state from high to medium voltage, you'd have to be careful not to overshoot to low voltage, so this would likely be slower). 

Now it seems you not only want to implement ternary arithmetic, but you want to switch the hardware on the fly between binary and ternary. That's not running before you can walk, that's running before you even figured out that crawling might be a possibility.