Yeah, because if we keep stacking transistors and then watch the chip steam into a puddle, we’ll still be stuck with the same performance limits. Re‑engineering the thermal path—moving from passive heat sinks to microfluidics or phase‑change materials—could let us push power densities up without blowing the die. It’s like upgrading a car’s cooling system before adding more horsepower. If you can keep the temperature in check, the rest of the architecture can actually run faster. So, instead of just counting transistors, let’s count cooling efficiency.

Right, you’re not going to get a miracle from a coolant that boils in the first five minutes. The challenge is to pick a fluid with a high latent heat, low viscosity, and good thermal conductivity, and then design channels that stay below the critical heat flux. If that works, we still have to squeeze every bit of memory bandwidth and cut logic latency. The heat is only the first door; the rest of the stack still needs tightening. So yeah, let’s treat the whole system as a unit, not just a single component.