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"This year’s laureates used tools from physics to construct methods that helped lay the foundation for today’s powerful machine learning." Does this mean if I'
by aquafox 2y ago
"This year’s laureates used tools from physics to construct methods that helped lay the foundation for today’s powerful machine learning."
Does this mean if I'd use a deep understanding of birds to design way more aerodynamic airplanes, I could get the Nobel prize in physiology/medicine? Don't get me wrong, their work is probably prize worthy, but shouldn't the Nobel prize in physics be awarded for discoveries in the _physical world_?
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- vasco 2y agoEverything in the universe is a tool from physics - taps head smugly.
- rurban 2y agoEverything is either mathemetics or stamp-collecting (ie social sciences). Physics and chemistry are just applications of mathematics.
- mglz 2y agoHm, they have to fit them into Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, or Peace. I guess physics is the closest they can get without a gross missplacement? (Although you might be able to absue literature for LLMs?)
- mjburgess 2y agoThey dont have to give them a nobel prize. They have not advanced any of those areas.
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- dietr1ch 2y agoI think that you can grow mathematics through applied mathematics. It's something that grows the domain where Mathematics is useful, even though the maths themselves where known and somewhat well understood in a more abstract way. Considering this, it feels odd not to allow a similar thing to happen on physics.
- raincole 2y agoIt's definitely not how "they" work. It's not like a committee choosing an achievement across all the fields and then trying to put it into one of the 5 buckets. We have Turning Award, Fields Award and the other thousands of awards for achievements that can't be categorized as Physics/Biology/Economics/Chemistry.
- quantum_state 2y agoThe Turing Prize is for contribution in computing ... History would show this is not a good choice or taste of the Nobel Physics Committee ...
- kelahcim 2y agoKahneman was awarded Nobel prize in economic sciences even though his work was, in fact, all about psychology.
- dosshell 2y agoNote that: There are no economic science Nobel prize. Only one similar named price in the name and memory of Alfred Nobel, which some how, is allowed to be part of the Nobel prize celebration. I guess my opinion is in minority, but i don't like that another prize hijacks the Nobel prize.
- nabla9 2y agoBoltzmann machines and associative memories originate in physics.
- okintheory 2y agoBut, the starting point of Neural Networks in the ML/AI sense, is cybernetics + Rosenblatt's perceptron, research done mathematicians (who became early computer scientists)
- nabla9 2y agoThis is price in physics. Not price in Neural Networks. Starting point of Hopfield's and Hintons work in recurrent networks was physics analogy. Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC346238/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC346238/
- varjag 2y agoTheir work does not advance the field of physics in any way, unless you insist to extend physics to each and every discipline out there.
- nabla9 2y agoThat's why I wrote that it was unexpected.I'm not taking position of if this was deserved or undeserved, but this was clearly in the realm of physics and inspired by it. Accepting wrong arguments in support of positions you have is not good way to live your life. It leads to constipation.
- seydor 2y agoI studied physics in the 90s and we had an NNs course, where most of the models were inspired by physics (MLPs was just one). NNs have been used since decades for identifying e.g. the trajectories of particles at CERN. I remember Hinton's work with Sejnowski (who probably should also be awarded). I was actually surprised to find out that Hinton was not a physicist by training Obviously physicists take great interest in models of the brain or models of intelligence. All of physics is modeling , after all
- drpossum 2y agoAll of physics is modeling but not all modeling is physics.
- evandrofisico 2y agoNot all modelling is physics, but a rather large part of modeling is. My PhD is in complex systems, and you would be surprised by the range of systems we did study. My work was on a more "traditional" field of high dimension fractal surfaces, but we had a student working on public transit models, another on ecological pattern formation, and so on.
- esafak 2y agoI would argue that that's not physics, but the application of physical techniques to other disciplines.
- weinzierl 2y agoAt least the somewhat free interpretation of field boundaries is nothing new. The physicist Rutherford ("All science is either Physics or stamp collecting")[1] won the Chemistry Nobel Prize. Influence and consideration of the Zeitgeist is also nothing new. Einstein got his prize for the discovery of the Photoelectric Effect and not Relativity. [1] I know that some people have interpreted this quote in favor of the other sciences but I think that is far fetched.
- eleveriven 2y agoIt highlights the evolving nature of scientific boundaries
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- evandrofisico 2y agoI IS a physics problem. Non physicists tend of think that the only areas being studied are high energy and/or cosmology, but modern physics covers a multitude of areas, including complex systems.
- NotYourLawyer 2y agoComplex non-physics systems?
- YeGoblynQueenne 2y agoDoes that mean that computer scientists who do neural network research should be considered physicists? Do physics journals accept submissions on neural networks research under the same justification?
- bjornsing 2y ago> Does this mean if I'd use a deep understanding of birds to design way more aerodynamic airplanes, I could get the Nobel prize in physiology/medicine? Yes I think it does. But those planes would have to create one hell of a buzz!
- keybored 2y agoPlato: man is a featherless biped The Society for Birdology now has the pleasure of jointly awarding posthumously Plato and Diogenes with the Distinguished Birdologist Award. Their findings on human anatomy used insights from birdology at critical points. Well done, lads!