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'?"

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

Astronomers Just Discovered The Biggest Explosions Since The Big Bang - ScienceAlert

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

(Mumbles of assent)

What do you think about Vivian Jenna Wilson's decision to speak out against her father, Elon Musk, in a public interview with NBC News?

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

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

[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."

SpaceX fires up Super Heavy booster ahead of Starship's 10th test flight (video) - Space

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

There you go.^†

When he's standing, in front of you

Why doesn't California have the tools, people, means to put out these fires even though they know there will be fires every year?

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

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

[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.

Has the current political environment caused Canadians to cancel trips to the United States?

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

Whatever.

Whatever.

Why is Tiananmen Square censored?

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.

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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:

James Webb Detects Never-Before-Seen Molecule on Scorching Exoplanet - The Daily Galaxy

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

You can have your cake and eat it too

What are some tips for braiding a woman's hair on a date?

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?"

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

Yuen: When cancer struck a second time, she found ‘euphoria’ - Star Tribune