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

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

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

Was Daenerys' downfall inevitable after she left Meereen in Game of Thrones?

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

[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."

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.

Do you wear tights for warmth or to make your legs look better?

Whatever.

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

What is the irony of life according to you?

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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:

Whatever.

We now told, by Senator Grassley, that on the FBI form about the Biden bribery story, there is a Burisma exec who says he has 17 tapes of his deal with the Biden. 15 of Hunter and 2 of Joe Biden? What would this do to Hunter/Joe Biden if released?

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

[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.

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

How do you relax?

(Mumbles of assent)

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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

When will dating stop being so hard for Gen Z?

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

There you go.^†

"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?"

According to the Gita, how do I abandon fruits of my karma? Should I donate my whole salary and stay hungry?

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

Bicycling tied to reduced dementia risk and greater hippocampal volume retention - Medical Xpress

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

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

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

Does the West have a defense against China's PL17 air-air missile?