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?

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?"

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:

Why are the democrats keep insisting that there are more than two genders?

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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

There you go.^†

What are your thoughts about Hulk Hogan at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump and ripping his shirt off? Did he exaggerate?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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 Republicans want to ban books and decide what your kids can and can’t read?

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

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

What was your most embarrassing wardrobe malfunction in public?

[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."

[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.

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

How has Sanskrit influenced modern Tamil language, particularly in terms of vocabulary?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

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

What should I do? I'm 17 and I'm dating a 23-year-old guy.

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

Whatever.

Whatever.

What's wrong with white women?

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

"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?"

(Mumbles of assent)

How should you handle a situation where your friend tells you they like someone who also likes you? Should you tell them or continue as normal?

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

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

When he's standing, in front of you

How should one handle a situation where they suspect their partner of cheating, but their partner denies it and claims it is all in their head?