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?

When he's standing, in front of you

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

There you go.^†

What do you think of Andrew Tate?

"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.

(Mumbles of assent)

Japan Is Ready to Fight a $385 Billion Annual Polluting Beast by Offering a Greener Alternative to Traditional Cement - The Daily Galaxy

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

"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?"

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

In space, no one can hear you scream — But it still gets incredibly noisy - Salon.com

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

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

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:

Meta in Talks for Scale AI Investment That Could Top $10 Billion - Bloomberg

[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.

Whatever.

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

If Russia needs the resources to fund the war in Ukraine, why doesn’t it throw open its doors to visa free western tourism? Enough people would be interested, & it would start to get some hard currency as €, CHF, £, SEK, $, JPY in the tills at shops.

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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

Brain ‘Reset Wave’ May Explain How ECT Rapidly Relieves Depression - Neuroscience News

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

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Whatever.

Was there a British ‘genocide’ of Aboriginal Australians?

You can have your cake and eat it too

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

Sabrina Carpenter Shares New Song “Manchild”: Listen - Pitchfork

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

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

[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."

Hegseth moves to rename Navy ship honoring gay rights icon Harvey Milk - The Washington Post