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 01:45
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
There you go.^†
In bed, not in music, which is better, a drummer or a bass player?
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Why do females hate MGTOW so much?
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
[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."
[Older voice] "Mmm. What about Hinton, he's widely regarded? Nobody got fired for buying IBM"
Yuen: When cancer struck a second time, she found ‘euphoria’ - Star Tribune
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:
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
"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?"
What are some hard rock or heavy metal bands that are overrated?
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.
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
^* Fibiger got the 1926 Medicine prize for the discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma (Don’t ask).
You can have your cake and eat it too
Do you agree with Michael Moore that Donald Trump is "toast" in a political comeback?
When he's standing, in front of you
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
(Mumbles of assent)
Screen time and physical activity habits linked to adolescent stress and depression - PsyPost
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
Whatever.
[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.
S&P Dow Jones Makes No Changes to S&P 500 in Quarterly Rebalance - Bloomberg
Whatever.
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)