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Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

nobelprize.org

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Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#311
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post #205

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I don't think there is a take I can disagree with more strongly. New technology can always be used for good or bad. His work in ML sets the course for a better future in spite of the people who use it for ill, whether advertisers or warlords.

> New technology can always be used for good or bad.

Always? Like atomic bombs?

> His work in ML sets the course for a better future

That very much remains to be seen, isn't it? So far, the negatives outweigh the positives.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#312

When the most significant advance since electrification needs to hop the fence to be recognized, perhaps it's time to add a new field. It can be done, the Economics prize was added in 1968.

IMO Turing Award is plenty prestigious - and has more legitimacy as its awarded by the relevant community (ACM) - rather than some small group (the Swedish Academy of Sciences) - tbh on that vein I'd say the right thing to do is to ditch the Nobel and let each community in the relevant field decide as a community the work to honor - prevent fiascos like this.

(and, working in the field, I completely disagree with the qualification as "most ...." - it has well known deficiencies and has not yet stood the test of time)

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#313

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This is such a tired reply. The peace prize is not part of the same group as the other awards, and a significant difference in the peace award is that intent is awarded not results. The dude who invented the MAD doctrine did not get the award despite nuke deterrance doctrice being related to the least amount of wars in any century since WW2. But his platform of deescalation and his plans for american foregin diplomac…

He received it before any of that. And Libya does actually cancel every point you mention by the way. Because it's actually not hard to have presidents not start wars at all- both presidents since Obama did just that.

And if the real Nobel prize doesn't want the confusion around its name to happen... it should do something about it?

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#314

I've always sided with Feynman on this, and this proves him right: wtf do these people think they are appointing themselves fit to hand out trinkets and baubles on behalf of global scientific achievement? It brings the award into disrepute, or at least in a Feynman way, exposes the inherent disreputability of awards themselves: who are they to award such a prize on behalf of physics? Awards committees: self-serving s…

And who are the Oscar’s to give out awards to movies? You can hand out the MJBurgess awards for non-NN-related physics today!

That goes to the latest work by researches in Gaussian processes, of course.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#315
post #179
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan." https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/

> "He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan." https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/ A bit different from "started a war".

If someone launched an airstrike against the continental US, what exactly would that mean?

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#316

Honestly it feels a bit weird with a Nobel laureate in physics who probably knows a lot less physics than even I* do… Makes me cringe a bit to be honest. Also makes me sad when I think about all the physicists and engineers who have made the chips that can train multi-billion parameter neural networks possible. I mean the so-called “bitter lesson” of AI is basically “don’t bet against the physicists at ASML et al”. N…

I work in industry supporting these supply chains; our advancements are part of a hive mind that could be harmed if individuals were artificially highlighted for achievement. The academics can have their awards, we smile seeing the world change a bit at a time.

Nothing wrong with picking some random people out of a hive mind. There seems to be some notable contributions around EUV for example [1].

And BTW, is the same not true for machine learning? I don’t think many have even read the Boltzmann machine paper. It’s basically a footnote in the history of deep learning. It has no practical significance today.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithogra...

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]

#317

To be fair, Nobel Prize has a history of expanding the traditional bounds of respective fields when awarding the prizes: Bertrand Russel got the Nobel prize in literature Daniel Kahneman got Nobel in economics

The economics prize is not a Nobel prize.

"Although not one of the five Nobel Prizes established by Alfred Nobel's will in 1895, it is commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics, and is administered and referred to along with the Nobel Prizes by the Nobel Foundation. Winners of the Prize in Economic Sciences are chosen in a similar manner as and announced alongside the Nobel Prize recipients, and receive the Prize in Economic Sciences at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony."

- Wikipedia

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