

The Nobel Peace Prize sucks for some. - spottiness
http://www.spottiness.com/spots/U4MRHWN8

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drallison
If the Nobel Prize was motivated by some penance for the "discovery" of
dynamite which made high explosives usable for wars, then a peace prize is
certainly justified.

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yjhall
The idea of a peace prize was probably good in 1895, but it has been poorly
implemented in comparison with the other prizes. To me, it just doesn't feel
right to say that Albert Einstein and Al Gore are both Nobel Prize winners.
Yet, because that's what it means, that's what people perceive (even in
academia): that they are both Nobel Prize winners and therefore somehow equal.

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drallison
“The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be
apportioned as follows: /- - -/ one part to the person who shall have done the
most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or
reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace
congresses.” The Peace Prize has been awarded 91 times in the 110 years Nobels
have been awarded.

Clearly the charter has changed somewhat over the years and has moved more
towards mitigating those things which are thought to be at the root cause of
war and conflict.

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spottiness
The United States has many Nobel Prize Winners: E.g. Richard Feynman, Murray
Gell-Mann, Herbert Simon, Al Gore, ... What?

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vidiviciveni
While we're at it, let's remove the Nobel Prize in Economics. It was not part
of Alfred Nobel's original will and is also a dubious category to include with
the other sciences.

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terio
You maybe right, but Economics at least has some scientific foundation.

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drallison
Economics does have some lovely mathematics, interesting ideas, but it is not
really an experimental science. Eric D. Beinhocker book, The Origin of Wealth
is an interesting critique of modern economics and the problems inherent in
its use in modeling the real-world. From the Nobel Prize point of view, a
prize makes sense because so much of modern decision making is informed by
economics, right or wrong. BTW, the economics prize was not one of the
original Nobel Prizes and was not created by Alfred Nobel.

