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?

[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."

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

What was your most embarrassing wardrobe malfunction in public?

[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.

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

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.

Why does it smell so bad? I noticed that when I move around my vagina has a stench. It’s usually a wet liquid, almost like pee. There’re little to no discharge and it doesn’t hurt or itch.

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

You can have your cake and eat it too

Whatever.

How did President Biden address the housing crisis when he entered office, and what were the outcomes of his actions?

Whatever.

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

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

Fifth measles case in Georgia confirmed in family member of person with earlier case - 11Alive.com

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:

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

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

IBM Stock Gains As Tech Giant Offers Plan For Quantum Computing's 'Next Frontier' - Investor's Business Daily

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

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

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

UNC Falls to Oklahoma, Setting Up Winner-Take-All Finale in Regional - 247Sports

When he's standing, in front of you

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

"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?"

US oil output set for first annual drop since pandemic - Financial Times

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

There you go.^†

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

Practice Report: Takeaways From Start of Second Week of OTAs - Baltimore Ravens

(Mumbles of assent)

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

What’s the best AI coding tool for beginners?