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?
08.06.2025 00:54
When he's standing, in front of you
[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."
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Show 1433: What Are the Hidden Dangers in the Air We Breathe? - The People's Pharmacy
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
"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?"
Are female judges more lenient than male ones?
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
Whatever.
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
Why is the world male-dominated?
"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
There you go.^†
Why do Indian guys love Russian girls?
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
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:
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.
Inside Ukraine’s audacious drone attack on Russian air bases - CNN
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
Teens like me, what are your expectations when entering adulthood?
[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).
(Mumbles of assent)
Posting Memes With Pride - Vulture
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Why do liberals think it is okay to steal votes while the rest of us obey the law(s)?
Whatever.
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
[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.