Lorraine Ford
Symbols are not really the province of physics. Symbols are man-made, intentional arrangements of:
- Ink on paper or pixels on screens
- Sound waves in the air
- Voltages/ transistors/ circuits in computers.
Physics is more about the actual materials of the world: the ink, paper, sound waves, gases, voltages, transistors, and metals etc. Physics is not about the man-made, intentional ARRANGEMENTS of these materials.
These man-made arrangements of materials are intended to symbolically represent something entirely different to the actual materials they are made of, but the intentions of people, and the ARRANGEMENTS of materials, are not the province of physics.
So, these man-made, large-scale, intentional arrangements of matter are not the province of physics:
- The arrangements of ink on paper, that are meant to symbolically represent written words and other symbols, are not in the province of physics.
- The arrangements of sound waves in the air, that are meant to symbolically represent spoken words and other symbols, are not in the province of physics.
- The arrangements of voltages/ transistors/ circuits in computers, that are meant to symbolically represent words and other symbols, are not in the province of physics.
So, the Nobel Prize for physics should never have been awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, whose entire work is about man-made symbols (i.e. man-made ARRANGEMENTS of matter) and the further man-made arrangement of these man-made symbols.