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

Whatever.

There you go.^†

When you have seven hours to kill, what should one do?

[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."

When he's standing, in front of you

(Mumbles of assent)

Astronomers discover black hole ripping a star apart inside a galactic collision. 'It is a peculiar event' - Yahoo

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

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

Why wait any longer for the world to begin?

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

"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).

Harvard doctor reveals 6 everyday foods that may cause cancer, and what to eat instead - The Economic Times

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.

You can have your cake and eat it too

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:

A cardiologist overhauled his diet to boost his longevity. Here's the grocery store path he takes to stick to his meal plan and avoid bad foods. - Business Insider

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

"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"

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

Whatever.

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

Why do some young mothers trick a guy into believing that they're pregnant and it's their child when years later they find out that it's not even theirs should he still pay child support or not?

[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.

My 11 million SEK, Dr Jo.

^† They rationalise their decision thusly:

Rays star Wander Franco hit with gun charge amid sexual abuse trial - New York Post

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?"

(Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize for Literature, 2016)

When writing a novel, how can a character be developed well, but QUICKLY?