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?
16.06.2025 02:57
"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?"
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Whatever.
What is the best sex you have ever had (in detail)?
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
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:
[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."
There you go.^†
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
(Mumbles of assent)
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
When he's standing, in front of you
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Why are white women dating more black guys than ever?
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
You can have your cake and eat it too
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you've witnessed?
(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.
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
Why do men cheat on their wives with someone extremely unattractive?
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
Whatever.
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
How does it feel to watch your wife get fucked hard?
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
[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."