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 04:25
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.
"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?"
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
[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.
Tom Girardi Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison on His 86th Birthday - Vulture
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Why does my mother care about my sister more than me?
[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."
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
There you go.^†
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
Heavily shorted AI stock is rapidly climbing the Fortune 500 - TheStreet
(Mumbles of assent)
When he's standing, in front of you
Whatever.
T.J. Oshie, the Caps’ beloved ‘warrior,’ announces his NHL retirement - The Washington Post
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
What are the 10 things you regret doing in your life?
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
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:
When will dating stop being so hard for Gen Z?
(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?"