Hovav Shacham4d ago
Sophie Schmieg

I feel like we should maybe not give life time achievement awards to people that invented a technology that has zero deployment, that has no path to deployment, and that has fostered a very unhealthy amount of snake oil vendors, especially when there is an alternative technology available to solve the same problem, and that technology is already deployed and has comparatively next to no downsides, at a time when we really really need to start deploying it more widely.

But that's just me, I guess.

Mar 21 at 6:30pmWeb
Show threadJordan4d ago
@sophieschmieg if that's their lifetime achievement, what does that say about their life
Show threadSophie Schmieg4d ago
@jrose eh, the technology itself *is* a nifty physics experiment. The problem is more that it is just a nifty physics experiment, and the Turing award is not a physics prize.
Show threadcynicalsecurity 4d ago

@sophieschmieg couldn’t they be given the FIFA Computing Award?

@jrose

Show threadHovav Shacham4d ago
@sophieschmieg Is it possible that the recipients have a history of discriminatory comments about Iranian students? I understand that is sometimes a positive factor for the award committee.
Show threadPaul_IPv64d ago

@sophieschmieg

perhaps it's time for a "raspberry" equivalent, an award for the software that did the most damage that year. sadly, there will be a lot of choices but at least we can have some warning labels from it.

Show threadPaul Hoffman4d ago
@sophieschmieg From reading the bios, they did significant stuff after that first bit. And that first bit was theorized before the Whit and Marty show first aired.
Show threadRobert Banz4d ago
@sophieschmieg But maybe if you give them an award they’ll just declare victory and go away?
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)4d ago

@sophieschmieg

I’m really not a fan of these awards in general. They promote the hero scientist stereotype. Most worthwhile things these days are accomplished by teams, not by individuals, and things like Nobel Prizes and Turing Awards pretend that one or two people did all of the important work and everyone else just stood around doing nothing.