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?

"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?"

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

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

Why do I feel bad when I see white girls dating black guys, am I racist?

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

[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."

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

How many trans people are lawful gun owners?

Whatever.

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

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

What do you think of Vance using a clip of an embarrassed teenager from almost 20 years ago in an attempt to bully Kamala Harris?

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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

[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.

Is there a type of function where every point has exactly one tangent line passing through it? If yes, what is this type of function called?

Whatever.

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

Did another parent ever tell you something about your child that you didn’t know?

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.

"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"

Why do Democrats call any Republican "Magats", like they are subhuman?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

When he's standing, in front of you

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

While emptying a house, have you ever seen something in it that blew your mind?

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

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:

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

Do older women know what they want?

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

There you go.^†

(Mumbles of assent)

Are there any industries or sectors where ChatGPT is particularly well-suited for implementation?