What change in the laws of physics would prevent the function of conventional digital circuits without breaking everything else?

Premise

Imagine a slightly more advanced modern day world where space flight was starting to commercialize. Imagine that all of a sudden laws changed and the only thing different is that no computer worked. This is sort of the premise of my new world: there is no personal computer.

Additional Details

No transistors allowed. There may be large mechanical computers that are inconvenient and cumbersome to use ala ww2, but it's something very special to be able to use. I really don't want to do this with magic but doing it with societal or social pressures is out of the question.

Question Restatement

Is there some edit in the laws of physics or chemistry to increase the minimum size of transistors from 5nm IRL to, say, 2 inches without breaking humans, life, everything else? Is there any natural-law that could accomplish this effect?

If such a thing is impossible and I need to find some other non-natural constraint(magic or something), could you please take the time to show why?

Intent Clarification

Say you're a citizen in this universe viewing the new stack exchange through your 4d VR headset. You wake up one day to find your computer isn't turning on. Not just that, but your phone and anything that relies on digital circuits isn't functioning.

Say you were a system administrator of the laws of physics and you couldn't force society to make any taboos. It's just a cost-benefit type calculation. The goal here is to make it more efficient for humans to try getting mentally good at calculations than it is to keep trying to make computers more advanced than, say, the colossus mark 1.

posted over 9 years ago

Nyarmith‭

1 reputation 1 0 0 0