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?
09.06.2025 05:44
[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."
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
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.
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
Whatever.
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
(Mumbles of assent)
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:
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Yuen: When cancer struck a second time, she found ‘euphoria’ - Star Tribune
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
What is so great about Jiraiya?
There you go.^†
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
Uh-Oh! Switch 2's New GameChat Feature Is Transcribing Bad Words - Nintendo Life
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Whatever.
Paris Erupts in Celebrations, Riots After PSG Wins Champions League - WSJ
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
"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 do some straight men like to suck dick but don't find other males attractive?
[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.
When he's standing, in front of you
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
What is the most memorable thing that happened in your college days?