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 23:53
"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
When he's standing, in front of you
Is it normal to hate my dog, but feel too guilty to get rid of him?
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
Whatever.
Why did Donald Trump look so old during the debate?
"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?"
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
'Mission: Impossible 8': Inside How They Shot Underwater Submarine - IndieWire
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:
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
Why do a lot of autistic people not know how to style their hair?
Whatever.
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season 11 Coming Soon - Blizzard News
(Mumbles of assent)
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.
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
What would you do if you found out that someone had broken into your home while you were sleeping?
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
[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."
Scientists discover universal rule that governs all life on Earth - The Brighter Side of News
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
There you go.^†
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences