(Here is my ELI5 attempt using the one-syllable G. Steele format, assuming you know what a transistor is ;) Transistors get warm when they work. We have so ma

(Here is my ELI5 attempt using the one-syllable G. Steele format, assuming you know what a transistor is ;) Transistors get warm when they work. We have so many of them now that we can not make all of them work at the same time. The CPU would just melt. The transistors that are useful all the time, work all the time. These days, the number of transistors that useful all the time stay the same with each new CPU. Transistors that are useful sometimes, but are really good at that thing, get turned off when they are not working. What has changed is that all extra transistors that are added are really good at a specific thing, like drawing or talking. This way, a CPU can keep getting new transistors that are useful some of the time, as long as they get turned off when they do not need to work.