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?
14.06.2025 17:42
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Whatever.
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
Can you write a letter to your first love without mentioning his/her name?
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
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.
Why do I sweat between my legs all the time, top off my legs, all way down?
You can have your cake and eat it too
Whatever.
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
Why has Biden pulled ahead in battleground states and is now projected to win the 2024 presidency?
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
[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."
[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.
Here’s why exercise is so important if you’re a cancer survivor - The Washington Post
"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?"
(Mumbles of assent)
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
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"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
What is your first experience having sex with older men?
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
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:
There you go.^†
How did you know you weren't the narc?
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
When he's standing, in front of you
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"