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?

You can have your cake and eat it too

[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?"

What is the funniest joke you've been told that you still think about to this day?

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

There you go.^†

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

My dog is 2 weeks old. He's not eating, moving and always sleeping and I can't take him to a vet. What should I do?

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

When he's standing, in front of you

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

Why do people mourn when their leaders lose elections? Is it common for people to cry over events that are out of their control?

Whatever.

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

What are the possible reasons for people feeling depressed after the holiday season? Why does being alone exacerbate these feelings?

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

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

(Mumbles of assent)

Do most narcissists have good intentions as long as you are under their control?

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

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:

Why are perceived or real slights interpreted as rejections and reality by pwBPD?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Whatever.

Why do siblings (or other close relatives) stop visiting each other as they grow older? Why does this happen with so many people nowadays?

[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.

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:

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

Why do gun owners feel the need to defend themselves with deadly weapons? Can they not just talk things out like civilized people do?

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.

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

What are the most outrageous violations of restaurant buffet etiquette have you seen?