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?

"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"

There you go.^†

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.

How safe is it to travel to Kashmir in 2024?

They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.

When he's standing, in front of you

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

How does gut health affect mental well-being?

"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."

(Mumbles of assent)

☆ what's the thing that made u fell in love with your bias?

"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"

Whatever.

A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

What does it mean when someone is pretending to be 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."

You can have your cake and eat it too

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Mysterious fast radio bursts help astronomers pinpoint cosmic ‘missing’ matter - CNN

Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*

If Delta Force soldiers wanted to form a criminal gang, how dangerous would they be with all their equipment (explosives, rifles, vests, night vision goggles)?

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:

[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Why are you a Muslim? Why is it Islam for you and not something else?

"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?"

Whatever.

"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"

Why does my intimate area “sweat” and smell so much? I almost have to have a shower everyday. How do I get rid of this?

^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).

[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.

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

How much of lounge pianists playing is from repertoire, and how much is improvised?