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?

When he's standing, in front of you

Whatever.

(Mumbles of assent)

Can I wear a headscarf? I am a white female but I have super curly hair, like 3B - 3C. Recently, I've been putting my hair in a pineapple and putting a headscarf around it. Is that okay? I'm not trying to appropriate any cultures.

"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'?"

How come Taiwan is LGBT friendly, yet Japan and South Korea are not?

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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

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:

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?

[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."

"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).

Signs of iPhone 17 Air Spotted in iOS 26 Beta 2 - MacRumors

… 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?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

What song are you listening to right now? What does it mean to you?

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."

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

What problems do you face in everyday life?

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.

There you go.^†

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

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital route for oil. Closing it could backfire on Iran - AP News

Whatever.

[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:

New Report Ranks 3 New Jersey Towns Among Kindest In America - 92.7 WOBM

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

When did women stop wearing bonnets in North America?