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?

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)

[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."

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

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:

Whatever.

If you could instantly cancel one social norm, what would it be?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

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

My ex got into a relationship within 2 weeks after a breakup. What should I do?

There you go.^†

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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

Are democrats inherently stupid or just lazy? They can Google " Ohio is investigating reports by residents that migrants are eating the local wildlife " why can't they seem to do the most simple things? Blind, ignorant, stupid or obtuse?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

"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?"

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Whatever.

When he's standing, in front of you

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

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

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

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

King Charles III pays respects to Air India crash victims at his annual birthday parade - PBS

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

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.

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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You can have your cake and eat it too

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

[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.

Why are you a Muslim? Why is it Islam for you and not something else?