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?

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

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

What is the significance of Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader in Major League Baseball, who just passed away?

[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."

There you go.^†

(Mumbles of assent)

Do you want to have an XXX chat?

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

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

Whatever.

What's the deal with black women who wear straight hair or go bald?

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.

You can have your cake and eat it too

Whatever.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra to continue trend of disappointing batteries - PhoneArena

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

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

If a person stops thinking one or two words in a second or half second means he had stopped thinking for half second?

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

[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.

Eating More of These Foods May Lower Your Cancer Risk by 8%, New Study Suggests - EatingWell

"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

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:

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"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?"

"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:

Trump says U.S. will get rare earth minerals from China and tariffs on Chinese goods will total 55% under new trade framework - PBS

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

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

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

Should a male with long hair comb his hair daily?