Chessprogramming wiki, @Gerd

[hgm]

I saw that some of my publications on attosecond pulses are mentioned in my description on the chessprogramming wiki. Can you replace one of those by the paper for which the Nobel prize is now awarded? (But alas, not to me. ) That is reference 23 in the announcement:

23. P.M. Paul, E.S. Toma, P. Breger, G. Mullot, F. Augé, Ph. Balcou, H.G. Muller and P. Agostini, Science 292, 1689 (2001)

[gaard]

I saw that some of my publications on attosecond pulses are mentioned in my description on the chessprogramming wiki. Can you replace one of those by the paper for which the Nobel prize is now awarded? (But alas, not to me. ) That is reference 23 in the announcement:

23. P.M. Paul, E.S. Toma, P. Breger, G. Mullot, F. Augé, Ph. Balcou, H.G. Muller and P. Agostini, Science 292, 1689 (2001)

That's pretty awesome, Harm. It must be your turn next for the Nobel prize. Maybe we should publish something together

[hgm]

I am afraid it doesn't work that way... It was Pierre or me, and they chose Pierre. According to their rules the prize can be shared by at most three people, and it seems they wanted to cover the entire trajectory, from discovery of the process that generates these pulses (Anne l'Huillier), to those that experimentally proved they were actually attosecond pulses (Pierre Agostini), to those that actually used the pulses for ultra-fast measurements of other processes (Ferenc Krausz).

I haven't done anything else that they would want to award the prize for. You don't just have to be good, you also have to be lucky. In hindsight the experiment they now awarded was one of the easiest I ever did. But it discovered something that was both spectacular and useful. The same experiment could also have proved that there were no attosecond pulses, and then no one would have cared about it.

[Koistinen]

You just need to unite people through chess, then get the peace prize. That should be easy and fun.
I'll love hearing your acceptance speech.

[hgm]

The peace prize is a sham. Most winners first had to wage wars to get it. I would not want to be associated with them. (Nothing bad about Mother Theresa, though.)

[Koistinen]

Yeah, Hell's Angel. Still not as bad as the woke.

[Daniel Shawul]

Is there a number like Erdo's for Nobel laureatues? HGM will get number 1 on that association scale, congrats on that I guess
Will take number 2 through my forum discussions with HGM lol.

There are a lot of smart people in AI over the years. It is an intellectual endeavour that attracts the curious and the weird.

[syzygy]

Congratulations or condolences on losing the Nobel prize. I'm not sure which to pick!

[syzygy]

Is there a number like Erdo's for Nobel laureatues? HGM will get number 1 on that association scale, congrats on that I guess
Will take number 2 through my forum discussions with HGM lol.

There are a lot of smart people in AI over the years. It is an intellectual endeavour that attracts the curious and the weird.

In that case your real Erdös number is 4 or less

[hgm]

Congratulations or condolences on losing the Nobel prize. I'm not sure which to pick!

Actually I am not sure either. Winning it would result in tons of invitations to present talks in far-off places all over the world for the upcoming year, and it would probably be considered extremely rude if you would refuse them all. It would damage your reputation more than being awarded the prize would have lifted it. It would change your life. And it would give you the feeling that there is nothing more to achieve that could possibly top it, which seems very demotivating. Of course you get a sizable sum of money on winning, but it is not like I am short on that, and only the beneficiaries of my testament might notice the difference. Having the medal that goes with it would be cool, of course. But it is also cool to know you were a member of a small team that conceived and performed an experiment that was deemed worth a Nobel prize. So perhaps I have the best deal here.