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?

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

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

Is marijuana bad for you?

[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 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:

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

How do I stop having work crushes because I only keep getting disappointed almost every day as I keep seeing they don’t like me back and won’t ever ask me out?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

There you go.^†

Is there a possibility that we are living in a simulation and that there is a concept of rebirth?

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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

Ray Dalio: ‘We should be afraid of the bond market’ - CNN

Whatever.

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.

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

Why are people with borderline personality disorder so capable of ripping someone apart with their words?

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.

When he's standing, in front of you

I have the power to talk to aliens through using telepathy. Why do people think I'm crazy?

"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?"

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

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

Do you know of a female masseuse that does door-to-door service in Bangalore?

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

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

(Mumbles of assent)

Why was Boromir corrupted by the One Ring, but not Faramir in The Lord of the Rings?

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

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

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

What the ‘Revenge Tax’ Is in the Tax Bill—and How It Could Pummel the Dollar - Barron's