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?

(Mumbles of assent)

^* 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."

The Democrats’ candidate, Kamala, is a total loser, while our candidate, Trump, is a legendary hero and a living god. Are you ready to lose BIG Democrats?

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

"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?"

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

35 Father’s Day Gifts For Anyone Who Still Doesn’t Know What The Heck To Get Their Dad - BuzzFeed

There you go.^†

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.

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:

Robots run out of energy long before they run out of work to do − feeding them could change that - The Conversation

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

You can have your cake and eat it too

Whatever.

What happened to Jordan Peterson? I used to really admire him before he became obsessed with being "anti-woke".

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

Whatever.

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

MAHA kids’ health report misinforms about tonsillectomies and ear tubes - statnews.com

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

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

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

LAFC beat Club América to qualify for Club World Cup and play against Chelsea - We Ain't Got No History

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

When he's standing, in front of you

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

Anderson Silva reacts to 'the end of another legendary era' following Jon Jones' UFC retirement - Bloody Elbow

[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.

Why wait any longer for the one you love?

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

Recovering from surgery isn’t easy. Exercising in the water can help. - The Washington Post

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

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

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

Why do philosophy of physics when you can do physics itself? - Aeon