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?

[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."

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

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

Scientists point to one particular sleep stage as being most important for preventing dementia - Earth.com

"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."

"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?"

Is it okay if I am not interested to talk to any of my relatives as I saw the real faces in my brother's marriage as none of them helped us rather were a kind of disappointment and were talking bad?

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

‘Resident Evil Requiem’ Sets February 2026 Release From Capcom - Variety

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:

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

United Switches Off Starlink Internet on Regional Jets After Static Problem - WSJ

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

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

When he's standing, in front of you

You hold the door open for a lady and she stops in her tracks and screams at you, ‘Don’t hold the door for me! I’ll get it myself!’ What are your feelings or immediate reaction?

[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.

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

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

Why are Democrats at Q so desperate that they keep taking down my links to comments that prove the residents in Ohio have been filing complaints about the Haitians eating the local wildlife from ponds in the local parks? Election interference

Whatever.

There you go.^†

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Whole Foods is opening new stores in 2025: See locations - USA Today

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

(Mumbles of assent)

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

Why do some people feel down in summer, specifically in July and August? What could be the reasons behind this feeling of sadness during those months only?

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

Whatever.

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

The world of the Harry Potter series is usually considered bad worldbuilding. What are some examples of actually good worldbuilding in the books/movies?