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?

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

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).

Telescope Captures First-Ever Ultra-Fine Magnetic Stripes on the Sun’s Surface! - The Daily Galaxy

[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

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

Heart Disease: What You Eat Matters More Than Cutting Carbs, Fat - Healthline

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

(Mumbles of assent)

Whatever.

How did you know you weren't the narc?

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

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

Whatever.

What it is like to have sex with a relative woman?

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

There you go.^†

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

How do we write and pronounce "it's my pleasure" in Italian?

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.

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

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

This Device Pulls Clean Drinking Water Out of the Air - VICE

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

"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?"

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

Is it possible for humans to determine their past life as an animal? Is there a scientific method to prove this?

When he's standing, in front of you

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

You can have your cake and eat it too

Hometown hero: Suárez soaks up the spotlight in Mexico City - NASCAR.com

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

[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."

Why are you a Muslim? Why is it Islam for you and not something else?