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?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

When he's standing, in front of you

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

Is deconstruct sunscreen good for a 16-year-old girl?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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:

Is the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting a preview of what the US is going to do to Taiwan?

(Mumbles of assent)

Whatever.

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

A common herb shows promise for boosting brain health and fighting Alzheimer’s - PsyPost

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

[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."

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

Scientists Just Found the Oldest Barred Spiral Galaxy – And It’s a Monster - SciTechDaily

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

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

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

Best Buy CEO raises red flag about startling customer behavior - TheStreet

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

There you go.^†

Whatever.

How many downloads does an iOS app need to get into the top charts in education?

"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?"

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

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

What are some great short jokes?

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:

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

[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.

Is Tinder the best dating app?

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

Cognitive changes before DBS not a dementia risk factor in Parkinson’s - Parkinson's News Today