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?
15.06.2025 01:02
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
When he's standing, in front of you
Do you usually wear your panties over or under your pantyhose?
"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?"
You can have your cake and eat it too
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.
Once-a-week pill for schizophrenia shows promise in clinical trials - MIT News
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Whatever.
What movies and TV shows portray realistic beauty standards?
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
How do you find out who your handler is as a targeted individual?
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
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.
What was the worst decision you ever did?
[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.
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
How often do you watch the news on TV?
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
There you go.^†
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
Which country do you recommend for me to live in, England, the USA, Italy, Spanish, or Austria?
[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."
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
What are some common examples of human hypocrisy?
(Mumbles of assent)
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)