How did a computer scientist such as Geoffrey Hinton manage to win a Nobel Prize in physics when computer science already has its own Nobel Prize equivalent in the Turing Awards?

When he's standing, in front of you

[Younger voice] "But wait a minute, Ising-Lenz goes back to the 1920's. And didn't Hinton plagiarise rather a lot? He also didn't invent modern backprop, did he, that's Linnainmaa? And Amari preceded Hopfield, too. That's not a good look."

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Wes Anderson’s Movies Ranked From Worst to Best - The Hollywood Reporter

You can have your cake and eat it too

^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).

Whatever.

Unseen Asteroids, Hidden Comets, and More: A New Observatory Is About to Expose Millions of Cosmic Mysteries - The Daily Galaxy

"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."

In December 1973, when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, comedian Tom Lehrer dropped his mic and stamped on it—satire had just died.

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

What is the scope of generative AI?

[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"

[The basic structure of artificial neural networks] has close similarities with spin models in statistical physics applied to magnetism or alloy theory. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes research exploiting this connection to make breakthrough methodological advances in the field of ANN.

In awarding prizes, the Nobel Committees often seem only marginally more competent than MTG is at explaining meteorology. And if they can give a literature prize for lyrics like:

What do you think about Christie’s New York sale dedicated solely to art created with artificial intelligence (AI)? To what extent is AI art a legitimate form of art?

(Mumbles of assent)

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The influencer whose tweet led to a ban on disposable vapes - BBC

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

There you go.^†

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*

"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"

"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"

What would happen if Trump and Putin make a Ukraine peace deal without Ukraine's consent?

"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"

They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.

Whatever.

Trump has a plan to remake the housing-finance system. It’s baffling to many lawmakers and experts. - Politico

"Hey guys, AI is pretty big so let's centre our prizes on it this year. We can get some attention, and it's all about advertising, at the end of the day, isn't it?"

Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:

"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"

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