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?

Whatever.

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.

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

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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:

When he's standing, in front of you

There you go.^†

What happened to Jordan Peterson? I used to really admire him before he became obsessed with being "anti-woke".

[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.

[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."

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

Genetic variant tied to doubled dementia risk for older men - The Washington Post

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

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

(Mumbles of assent)

Dollar General Sees Greater-Than-Expected Growth as Higher-Income Consumers Seek Value - PYMNTS.com

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

Trivago watched its revenue forecast plummet from $1 billion to nearly zero—so the company tapped a set of former interns to turn it around - Fortune

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

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

Is "Cancel Culture" a Threat to Free Speech? Many argue that cancel culture has gone too far, leading to the silencing of unpopular opinions or voices. But is it really a violation of free speech or a consequence of people holding others accountable?

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

What do you think of the controls that will be set up over information flows at Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' missions?

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

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

"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?"

The U.S. Economy Is Headed Toward an Uncomfortable Summer - MSN

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

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

Whatever.

A 2.6-Million-Pound Rock Thrown Inland… by a Monster Wave - The Daily Galaxy