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?
11.06.2025 15:48
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
You can have your cake and eat it too
I have a "fat pussy" and I'm super self cautions about it. Do guys think it's gross?
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Why should you never do drugs? Will this story absolutely shock you?
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Whatever.
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.
The latest on the Knicks' coaching search and their interest in Jason Kidd - Marc Stein | Substack
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?"
There you go.^†
This Plant You’ve Never Heard of Can Do What Scientists Thought Was Impossible - SciTechDaily
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
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:
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
[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.
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
[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."
Why do Indian parents force their kids to do stuff?
Whatever.
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
Why doesn’t the UK change their flag?
(Mumbles of assent)
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Do flat Earthers really exist? Why do they believe the Earth is flat?