this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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[–] lambda_notation@lemmy.ml 58 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"They used physics to do it" is just a laughably pathetic motivation. Nobel hated "abstract wankery" or "intellectual masturbation" and wanted to promote results which benefitted the common man and society directly. This is incidentally also why there doesn't exist a Nobel prize in economics. The nobel prize comitte has since long abandoned Nobel's will in this matter and it is anyones guess what the order of magnitude of spin Nobel's corpse has accumulated.

it is anyones guess what the order of magnitude of spin Nobel’s corpse has accumulated.

I'm guessing it's nearing the theoretical limits of "abstract wankery."

[–] prole@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The nobel prize comitte has since long abandoned Nobel's will in this matter

How long? Wouldn't this just kind of suggest that criteria is simply different at this point? Maybe complex electronic devices didn't exist back then, so one can really only guess as to what he would think. Because he's been dead for a very long time...

The prize is named after the dude, he doesn't get to decide the rules of its award in perpetuity.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

The prize is named after the dude, he doesn't get to decide the rules of its award in perpetuity.

Yes he does. It's the law.

Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind"