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?

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

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

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

17 more Rite Aid stores to close in WA, including 4 Bartell Drugs - The Seattle Times

There you go.^†

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

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

'King of the Hill' Reboot First Details: Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Dale - Variety

You can have your cake and eat it too

When he's standing, in front of you

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

Hillingdon heraldic designer appointed MBE for royal cypher - BBC

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

[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."

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 165 — Guardians of Space - Space

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

"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?"

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.

Canadian Robot Finds a Weight Beneath the Ocean Equivalent to 250 Million Elephants - Jason Deegan

(Mumbles of assent)

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

In 2020, a Rogue Wave the Size of a Four-Story Building Hit the High Seas—It Was Never Supposed to Exist - Indian Defence Review

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

[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.

Whatever.

Do you think the number of sissies is on the rise?

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

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang says he's waiting for Elon Musk's Neuralink before he has kids - Business Insider

Whatever.

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:

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

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