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?
Last Updated: 29.06.2025 03:28
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
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Hey girls can we see some anal play?
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
"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?"
Why is Google betting big on anthropic?
"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:
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
How can I fall asleep fast at night?
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
There you go.^†
How do the youth in Taiwan perceive their national identity in relation to China?
^* 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?"
Whatever.
Why do men like to suck another man’s dick?
[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."
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 idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
Astros Place Jacob Melton On 10-Day Injured List - MLB Trade Rumors
Whatever.
[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.
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
The World Ends with You Director Tatsuya Kando Leaves Square Enix - Anime News Network
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
(Mumbles of assent)
Civilization VII patch lets you turn off some controversial new features - Ars Technica
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
When he's standing, in front of you