Hacker News Reader

Is that even "possible"? As in, they have to follow the rules of the organization, which have some criteria laid out. Not sure who could stop them from changing, though. Like, I think the original intent was to have done the most the preceding year, but now it's more of a lifetime award. So perhaps they can change or add different categories if wanted.

View on HN

That's the only reason I can think of for this - like, Alfred Nobel or some other dead donor set rules that they aren't allowed to change now. But I haven't seen anyone confirm it.

Alfred Nobel was the only donor, and his will spells out the rules: https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobels-will/

In 1968, the Nobel Foundation accepted a donation from the Swedish central bank to establish a prize in economy, but in hindsight that was a pretty bad idea, and the probability of them accepting future donations to establish prizes in other fields is very slim.

They STILL don't call it a nobel prize. That's something.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com