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?

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

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

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

2025 U.S. Nationals: Day 1 Finals Live Recap - SwimSwam

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

Blumhouse Reveals Trailer And Poster For ‘Black Phone 2’ - Deadline

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

You can have your cake and eat it too

How an unnoticed pregnancy complication almost ended a young Staten Island mom’s life - SILive.com

[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.

[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."

Whatever.

What do you think about Vivian Jenna Wilson's decision to speak out against her father, Elon Musk, in a public interview with NBC News?

Whatever.

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

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

2025 NFL All-Paid Team: Saquon Barkley, Dak Prescott headline top earners by position - NFL.com

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.

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

Why did Amazon initially deny leave of absence to Alexis Scott-Windham, the Amazon worker who survived the New Orleans terrorist attack?

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

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?"

Judge Scolds Diddy for ‘Nodding Vigorously’ to the Jury, Threatens to Remove Him From Courtroom - Variety

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.

There you go.^†

What does it mean if someone asks if it’s pink?

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

(Mumbles of assent)

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

Nintendo Switch update 20.1.1 out now, patch notes - Nintendo Everything