Hinton has become a household name, at least here in Canada. But only within recent years as his discoveries have now proven useful in capital creation. Nobody knew who he was in the 1980s when his discoveries were "useless".

Which stands to reason. People only think about you if you do something for them. Newton and Einstein enabled the creation of capital that changed the world, so they are remembered. The guy who discovered something amazing beside them, but that which we still haven't figured out how to use, remains unknown.