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: 19.06.2025 09:22
Whatever.
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
You can have your cake and eat it too
What is your opinion on the band Nickelback? Why do they receive criticism from some people?
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
Whatever.
"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?"
Do handsome guys intimidate women or people in general?
(Mumbles of assent)
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
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… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
How rough can the ferry passage from Hull to Rotterdam be in the autumn ( at the end of October )?
There you go.^†
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
What are the common formulas for improvising ornaments in bel canto singing?
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
"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
Does eating bread before bed make you fat? If so, why?
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
[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.
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:
[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.
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Which Bibles can one read and be confident they are reading the inerrant word of God?
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
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.