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?
12.06.2025 12:23
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
Poor appetite? What that can mean and how to get hungry again - The Washington Post
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
Whatever.
Will Ferrell Developing ‘Eurovision’ Movie Into Broadway Musical - The Hollywood Reporter
(Mumbles of assent)
You can have your cake and eat it too
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.
Is it okay for a wife who comes home from a date to tell her husband what she did?
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.
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
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.^†
[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.
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
What was the first Native American tribe to inhabit Long Island, NY?
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Do you have any fantasies you are ashamed of?
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
"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"
Are evolutionists giving evolution a bad name by claiming humans started off as shrews?
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
When he's standing, in front of you
"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?"