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?
10.06.2025 09:43
You can have your cake and eat it too
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Whats the rule that makes "please" pronounced the same as "pleas"?
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
Do women like men who have slept with many women?
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
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:
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
Dejected Joshua Kimmich reacts to Germany’s Nations League defeat - Bavarian Football Works
Whatever.
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
(Mumbles of assent)
Why would a girl not want you to know she has a crush on you?
Whatever.
"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?"
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
What are the coolest new smart home gadgets to upgrade your living space?
[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.
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
There you go.^†
What do you do to make yourself sleep early?
[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."
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.
When he's standing, in front of you
Texas woman dies from brain-eating amoeba after cleaning sinuses with tap water - NBC News
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
Here’s where to get free doughnuts on National Donut Day 2025 - Fortune
(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.
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"