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?

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:

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

Why does my 5-year-old daughter keep repeating the words 'they will come for us, they will find us and touch us'? I'm quite scared.

"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

Whatever.

Stolen iPhones disabled by Apple's anti-theft tech after Los Angeles looting - TechSpot

[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.

"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?"

Whatever.

Scientists find a boulder weighing 2,645,547 pounds that was washed inland by an enormous tsunami - Earth.com

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

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

There you go.^†

Ancient Protein Breaks Biological Rules by Working in a Mirror World - SciTechDaily

[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."

(Mumbles of assent)

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

Colorado has now recorded 10 measles cases this year as airport outbreak grows - GazetteXtra

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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

When he's standing, in front of you

Social Security June payment schedule: Here’s when recipients will get their checks - LiveNOW from FOX

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

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.

Is there a stereotype that South Indians are physically strong and muscular compared to other regions of India?

"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:

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

Do you remember one day, you put a deep smile on someone's face and made them very happy?

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

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

What Gemini app features are free versus paid? [June 2025] - 9to5Google