it's really not hard to understand. a standard computer produces a 1 or a 0 in sequence, binary, and this is used to generate equations. a computer is basically a very powerful calculator doing hundreds of thousands of calculations every second. the way a quantum computer works is you cool a special made processor to a very specific temperature (approx. -273 degrees c), at that point it forms a bose einstein condensate, which simply put is a particle that can superposition or exist in two states simultaneously. what that means for a computer is you can have a 1 or 0 or, and this is important, both at the same time. this means it can perform calculations at an immensely faster rate than a standard computer, almost unfathomably faster in some cases. but this isn't a straight upgrade, it's great at certain simulations and terrible at others, we're still working the kinks out.  okay so this important because we're rapidly reaching the end point of what we can do with standard hardware. for example, gpus are getting close to the 1nm level and you can't really go smaller than that because below 1nm you encounter quantum tunneling which is where the pathways for the semiconductor are so small they can't effectively hold electrons back and we end up with worsening performance. quantum computing is a bit of a sidegrade that will let us keep boosting performance year over year like we have been. not super complicated, the media just doesn't explain it properly and uses made up nonsense terminology.
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