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.

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

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

Asia stocks buoyed by tech gains; trade, economic uncertainty persists - Investing.com

Whatever.

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

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

This harmless drink accelerates aging in a dangerous way, according to science - Glass Almanac

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

Dana White names the only fighter Jon Jones ever ducked and it’s not Tom Aspinall - Bloody Elbow

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

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

Are there any types of headphones or earbuds that are specifically designed for wearing overnight?

There you go.^†

"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.

Scientists discover universal rule that governs all life on Earth - The Brighter Side of News

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

(Mumbles of assent)

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

Doritos, Cheetos, M&Ms and other popular snacks will soon have warning labels in Texas - KHOU

When he's standing, in front of you

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:

How do you know how physically attractive you actually are?

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

Whatever.

[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."

Breaking down the CLARITY Act: What it means for crypto’s future - AMBCrypto

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

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

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

A recipe to reverse cancer’s sweet tooth - Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory