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?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

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:

Why would the state lie about the Earth's shape? We know that it's flat, but why do they lie and tell us that it is a sphere?

[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.

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

"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?"

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Whatever.

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

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

Hello I am 17 year old boy and I am interested in transgender why?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

When he's standing, in front of you

Whatever.

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[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."

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

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.

What are some effective ways to cope with loss and grief?

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

(Mumbles of assent)

There you go.^†

What do you respect the most about Elon Musk?

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."

Trump says Xi agreed to restart flow of crucial minerals, but analysts say China won’t give up its ‘rare earth card’ - CNN

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

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"

Gotham TV Awards: ‘Adolescence,’ ‘The Pitt’ & ‘The Studio’ Among Big Winners - Deadline

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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