Well, the only true test for his eligibility is "Does awarding the Nobel Prize to this person advance the interests of the Nobel Committee?", but given that an award to Linus doesn't obviously embarrass George Bush, I'm thinking you're probably right.

It is a nice thought, but it does seem to not fall under the scope of the prize.

It would probably make more sense to pursue the creation of a Nobel (or other global prize) category for Compuational/Information Sciences. The impact of progress in this field have just as much, if not more, of an effect on the world today as the other Nobel fields (Chemsitry, Biology, etc.) Note: I am not saying this is a realistic possibility, but it is probably more likely than a computer scientist winning the peace prize.

It seems like there are plenty of people in the field (as well as other Engineering related fields that are more relevant to the world now than they were during the creation of the Nobel prizes) that justify a global acknowledgement. Considering the importance of the internet in global daily life, and the fact that now jQuery is used on 1/5th of the world's websites, it seems Resig has had enough influence on the world to deserve metion too. Remember, the Nobel prizes stress more recent accomplishments over past successes.

I agree that it would be nice to have a CS nobel (or engineering, etc.), but that thought is unrelated to the peace prize question. A CS prize would be handed out with respect to technical merit, just like the other scientific ones.

However, the peace prize would be awarded based on promoting peace. For example, if Twitter one day actually enabled a revolution to take place, it could arguably be eligible for the nobel peace prize, but probably not the CS prize. Similarly, solving a very hard algorithmic problem would get you the CS prize but not the peace prize.

I think the question of whether Linus deserves the award is a very interesting one indeed, because it leads to a much more fundamental question:

"If I cure world hunger, I deserve the prize. But what if I write a script that runs in the background and five years later cures world hunger, do I still deserve the prize?"

Its just automation right?

I think Linux is itself prize-worthy, and thus since we can not hand the award to Linux itself, I think it would be a wonderful statement to give it to its original creator. I believe Linux really has changed/helped the world that much, and I think it would also make the important statement that politics isn't the only way of improving the world.

I understood that there is no Nobel prize for Mathematics, which computing is considered an extension of. Nobel deliberately committed Mathematics. Would it be wrong to add a Nobel award against Nobel's wishes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize#Lack_of_a_Nobel_Pri...

Well, the foundation that manages the prize money fund operate according to the will of Alfred Nobel, and they can't add any prize.

However, you could do something like the economy prize which is actually awarded by the Swedish national bank, and is "in memory of Alfred Nobel". It'd be a bit more work to get such a new prize to be included among the others though. You could try bribing the King of Sweden, it might work! :-)

We sort of have a Nobel Prize for CS -- the Turing Award. This could also be compared to the Fields Medal for mathematics.

>I don't really see his eligibility. Remember a certain US president getting it for writing speeches???

I am not an Obama fan (at all) but I can follow their logic. He does hold promise in the specific area of promoting peace. However, I certainly don't think he did the most in this area over the last year.

That's one reason why I think the Nobel prize is a perversion. The set of eligible people is not one or two people. There are a lot of people who do great things and in the end, the selection is fairly arbitrary. Honoring someone for doing someone honorable is good; Conferring enormous authority to one person by granting them a prize diminishes the authority of other great people.

Take Krugman. He got a Nobel for a very very specific area of economics. He now writes on an area that was not his specific focus nor has he proven himself particularly insightful. However, if he gets in an argument with other respected economists, the general perception is, "who has the Nobel?"

This observation applies to all prizes, and is articulated well from another angle by Feynman (commenting on his own Nobel prize): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f61KMw5zVhg

I think that Obama's prize was because of his work on nuclear weapons

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09...

To be fair, the main reason Obama got the prize was for the dramatic change in diplomatic relations between the US and, well, everyone else. The previous eight years basically consisted of a repeating monologue of "It's our way or the highway", whereas now the US is actually engaging in dialogue.

That said, I completely agree it was premature and that he shouldn't have gotten it before having actually achieved something more than making pretty speeches.

Actually, I'd consider changing world opinion about the future of the US overnight quite an accomplishment all by itself; that is doing something.

But running two wars? While getting a peace prize?

It's truly ironic, but Obama being not-Bush has indeed been good for world peace as a whole. Compare their respective diplomatic approaches to China and Russia.

Was this one of those deals where you negotiate by making them wince first and then coming in with an offer that alone wouldn't have succeeded but now looks peachy (really nice) compared to the wince-inducing proposal.

Give em some time, those wars were already in progress and the US government doesn't turn on a dime.

Linux, and free software in general, most certainly does promote "fraternity between nations" since it's all about people collaboratively developing something that benefits the entire human species. Though personally I'd be more inclined to give the prize to Stallman.

The idea is similar to Norman Borlaug's Nobel, although I'd argue that the case for Torvalds isn't nearly as strong, or, at least, far more diffuse.

On the other hand, it isn't hard to think of worse recipients.