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?
13.06.2025 03:45
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
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?"
Why do older siblings always hate younger siblings?
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
Whatever.
Crashed lander looks back at Earth from the moon photo of the day for June 10, 2025 - Space
Whatever.
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
Have you been with a stranger yet?
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
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.
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Oldest human DNA ever found tells the story of a lost branch on the human family tree - Earth.com
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Mumbles of assent)
There you go.^†
Which is a better option, a love marriage or an arranged marriage in India?
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
"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 world to begin?
What should I do to get over a relationship?
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:
[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.
What are LGBT+ people tired of hearing?
[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."
You can have your cake and eat it too
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
Why do old men think young women and girls would want them over guys their own age?