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?

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

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

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

How to protect yourself from wildfire smoke and poor air quality - The Washington Post

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

When he's standing, in front of you

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.

5 Drinks to Help You Debloat, According to Dietitians - EatingWell

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

Beware: There’s a new Trump-RFK Jr. epidemic brewing - NJ.com

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Whatever.

What would happen if Kakashi and Naruto switched places?

(Mumbles of assent)

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Life-building molecules discovered in the disk of a young star - Earth.com

"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?"

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

[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."

10 Must-See Movies at the 2025 Tribeca Festival - IndieWire

Whatever.

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

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:

A 14-year-old created an app that detects heart disease almost instantly - Boy Genius Report

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

"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.

What is your juiciest sex story?

There you go.^†

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

Father’s Day 2025: 28 gifts dads will actually want - The Verge