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?
15.06.2025 04:44
"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?"
"Naah, Linnainmaa is a Finn. Can't give it to a bloody Finnish mathematician. Let's go for drinks. Brännvin anyone?"
Whatever.
Will you share your wife? Can she take both of us at the same time?
Why wait any longer for the one you love?
Whatever.
"Where can we shoehorn it in? Chemistry is easy 'cos AlphaFold; but what about physics? A bit more challenging, right?"
[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).
They then move on to selectively provide their own version of history. But hey, it’s OK. They wanted controversy, didn’t they? Whatever.
What is the funniest joke you've been told that you still think about to this day?
(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)
A fly on the wall at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Mumbles of assent)
What is the kinkiest thing you and your sex partner have done in bed?
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.
You can have your cake and eat it too
… then anything is possible. There’s no rule that a Nobel Prize has to make sense.^*
What is it that gives a man who is a submissive cock sucker his most pleasure?
"Good point, I'm sure we can swing it. And let's tack on Hopfield while we're about it."
Fortunately, we are privy to the discussion that led up to this:
When he's standing, in front of you
[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.
^† They rationalise their decision thusly:
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
Why would my husband cheat on me with an ugly fat woman?
[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."
There you go.^†
"Good idea, but how can we wangle something that says 'Physics'?"
Has anyone shared his wife with a friend? How was 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:
"Didn't he do something with Boltzmann in it? That sounds physics-y. RBMs and stuff, eh?"
My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.
What are the most common signs that a partner will cheat before it happens?