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?

… 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?"

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

What do you think of Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman's statement that "the Bangladesh Army will always stand by the people"?

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:

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

Why do so many men on the internet try to compete with women, or try to "humble" and bash them? There's so many videos across my tiktok and YouTube of men claiming how they're wanting to get back at women and put them in thier place.

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?"

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

What are some of the best practices for integrating generative AI tools like Claude AI into a company's existing workflow?

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

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.

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

What are examples of real life forced feminization?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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."

Nintendo Switch 2 launch games: Every Switch 2 game available on day one - Video Games Chronicle

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

[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."

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

Breakthrough eye drops reverse vision loss from age-related macular degeneration - The Brighter Side of News

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

[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.

Whatever.

Do Republicans give permission to Democrats to vote for any candidate except for Kamala Harris?

(Mumbles of assent)

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

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

Why am I not getting any atheists to debate with? Are they scared?

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

When he's standing, in front of you

There you go.^†

What’s the funniest thing you’ve heard a child cry about?