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?

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

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

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

Why is Eric Clapton so roundly disliked among guitarists?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

S&P 500 to Soar on Fading Tariffs Impact, Analysts Say - Barron's

There you go.^†

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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.

What's the most incredible coincidence that ever happened to 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."

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

Whatever.

Why do foolish atheists think their strange delusional theories are facts?

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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:

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

New COVID variant is spreading. Don’t underestimate it, experts say. - NJ.com

"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?"

[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.

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

South Korea’s opposition leader Lee wins election as voters punish conservatives after martial law chaos - CNN

When he's standing, in front of you

(Mumbles of assent)

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

If English makes 3 additional gender terms to accommodate for XXX, XXY, and XYY people, what would be the most realistic terms for those genders?

Whatever.

You can have your cake and eat it too

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

What are the reasons why am I so tired before my period?

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

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

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

Are you happy that soon we will never hear from Kamala Jones again?