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 07:21
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
There you go.^†
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
What was your biggest culture shock going to Europe?
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
My ex got into a relationship within 2 weeks after a breakup. What should I do?
Whatever.
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
Whatever.
Why is there so much evil in the world?
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.
[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.
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
Why am I so tired of seeing homeless people all over the place?
^* 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?"
When he's standing, in front of you
What are some of your favorite hip hop lyrics?
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
What smell will you never forget?
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:
(Mumbles of assent)
"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?"
How do I come out as queer to my best friend in a funny and stupid way?
You can have your cake and eat it too
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk's companies report positive developments amid his return to work - CNBC
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
[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."
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"