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?

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

"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 can melt your heart?

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

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

(Mumbles of assent)

Can it be true that people know your name, not your story, they’ve heard what you’ve done, but not what you’ve been through, so take their opinions of you with a grain of salt?

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

When he's standing, in front of you

How did it feel when experiencing gay sex for the first?

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

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.

Whatever.

It has been said that people with ADHD can often hyperfocus. Can that be an advantage?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

Whatever.

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

What are the differences between INFJ-T and INFJ A?

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

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

There you go.^†

CDC Health Advisory Says This 'Ongoing Risk' Leaves Travelers Vulnerable on Planes, Trains, Public Transport, and More - Travel + Leisure

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:

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

[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.

Why does Boko Haram attack its own Muslims?

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

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

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

What are the best Jewish jokes?

[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 world to begin?

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

Apple’s struggles to update Siri lead to investor concerns over AI strategy - Financial Times