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?

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.

[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.

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

Is something wrong with my discharge? So, when I masturbate, white discharge comes from my vagina, but it's not stretchy, it's pasty. It doesn't smell and I'm not itchy, so I'm sure it's not a yeast infection. Why is it pasty though?

"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."

When he's standing, in front of you

Can you make a fake K-pop group? It can be with any idols.

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:

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

Angel Reese Posts 1st Career Triple-Double as Sky Beat Sun in WNBA Commissioner's Cup - Bleacher Report

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

[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."

What is your favorite underrated movie and why? What makes it underrated? How did you find it?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

Whatever.

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

President Trump kicked Zelensky out of the White House. Is it over for a deal?

(Mumbles of assent)

Whatever.

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

Rory McIlroy makes an 8, barely breaks 80 in missing cut at RBC Canadian Open - NBC Sports

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

There you go.^†

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

Why did Donald Trump look so old during the debate?

"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?"

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

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

First Signal of Climate Change Became Detectable 130 Years Ago - ScienceAlert

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

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

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

Why do Muslims not get HIV/AIDS in spite of having 4 wives and multiple relationships?