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."

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

What do software developers need to know about these new AI-driven IDEs like Cursor and Claude Code to stay ahead in their field?

There you go.^†

(Mumbles of assent)

Whatever.

Have you ever been instructed/forced to crossdress for the benefit of others?

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

Whatever.

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

Cannabis can pack an unexpected punch for older users, experts warn - OregonLive.com

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.

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?"

What is your most erotic sex story?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

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:

How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward. - Quanta Magazine

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

Why do wives cheat on their loyal husbands?

When he's standing, in front of you

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?"

Wasn't it a good timely decision by the Modi government in hindsight to ban TikTok in India after witnessing how TikTok and Red note has become a headache for the government in the US to deal with?

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

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

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

Gen X, millennials are about three times more likely than their parents to be diagnosed with appendix cancer, study finds - CNN

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

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

[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.

Searching for axions by analyzing X-ray observations of entire galaxies - Phys.org