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?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

You can have your cake and eat it too

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

‘The View’ Hosts Divided Over Patti LuPone Apology: ‘I Just Was Raised Differently, Clearly’ - TheWrap

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

There you go.^†

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

Hinge CEO Justin McLeod says dating AI chatbots is ‘playing with fire’ - The Verge

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

[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."

Whatever.

Why is only the left side of my vagina bleeding, on and off?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

I see ugly guys dating gorgeous, "hot" women all the time. I, too, am not very attractive but I'm not doing well with the ladies. What's their secret?

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

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

[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.

How were cows used in ancient India?

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

(Mumbles of assent)

Whatever.

Cold Sore Virus You’ve Been Ignoring Hijacks Your DNA’s Structure in 3D—But Scientists Just Found its Fatal Flaw - The Daily Galaxy

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

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

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.

Why can't my adopted sister accept she is not part of my family because she isn't related? Why can't she stop calling my parents mum and dad?

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

"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?"

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 would Trump make conspiracy claims that Haitians are eating pets in Ohio?

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

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

When he's standing, in front of you

How do we write and pronounce "it's my pleasure" in Italian?