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 05:10
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
"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?"
Why did lobsters evolve bright colors if they are neither poisonous nor venomous?
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
When he's standing, in front of you
There you go.^†
500-Million-Year-Old Mystery Fossil Rewrites Early Animal Evolution - SciTechDaily
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
You can have your cake and eat it too
I'm straight, so why do I love watching guys cum?
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.
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
Space pebbles and rocks play pivotal role in giant planet's formation - Phys.org
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Whatever.
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
How do you view men and women who cheat?
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
Whatever.
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
How the Menstrual Cycle Affects ADHD - The Cut
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.
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
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."
(Mumbles of assent)