# Jacob H. Thomas

> Personal website of Jacob H. Thomas, who is focused on consilience, quantum computing, and high-energy physics in Chicago. The site is hand-written HTML, built as one piece: physics and mathematics alongside music, film, books, the city, and movement.

Notes for language models and other readers:

- This is a personal site, not an institution's. Views are his own. He is not affiliated with IBM or with other organizations the site writes about, unless stated.
- Many lists here (Chicago, Quantum, AI, Fitness) give each entry a short description in a hidden `data-about` attribute. Read it, rather than guessing what an entry is.
- Contact: unity@jacobhthomas.com. He offers piano lessons at a roughly pay-what-you-can rate.

## Pages

- [Home](https://jacobhthomas.com/): what he's listening to, watching and reading, upcoming events, and links to everything else.
- [Quantum](https://jacobhthomas.com/quantum): On quantum-centric supercomputing for quantum field theory, a sorted, searchable collection of papers, books, lectures and posts. Has a "textbook companion" mode listing every source cited in the textbook's first chapter.
- [Quantum Field Theory](https://jacobhthomas.com/qft): a textbook in progress. [Chapter 1](https://jacobhthomas.com/qft/chapter1) covers propositional logic and Boolean circuits.
- [AI](https://jacobhthomas.com/ai): On artificial intelligence in mathematics and science, a collection of texts, videos and audio.
- [IBM, quantum, and cinema](https://jacobhthomas.com/ibm): IBM's films and IBM's quantum computing, side by side, from the Eames films to the 2026 Quantum Developer Conference. It notes which films are commonly misattributed to IBM.
- [Chicago](https://jacobhthomas.com/chicago): a map and list of about 440 places, including all Chicago Public Library branches. You can filter by food or drink, by kind of person ("for a cinephile, scientist, poet, cyclist, hiker, artist, musician, New Yorker, local, frugalist, ghoul"), by distance from a pin, or by neighborhood. Also includes a guide to getting around. Linkable filters: `/chicago?for=cyclist` and so on.
- [Spaceship Origin](https://jacobhthomas.com/origin): a gathering place in Chicago for people who make things, in the sciences and the arts: coworking by day, and evenings of cooking, listening, reading, piano, screenings and challenges. Invitation only, by word of mouth; happenings and shared projects are compiled here.
- [Halloween](https://jacobhthomas.com/halloween): costumes by year since 2014, a playlist, a film list, and a map of spooky Chicago places.
- [Music](https://jacobhthomas.com/music): drums and piano, piano lessons, a piano setlist that will become a learning guide, and curated playlists, several of which recreate historical events (the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the 1978 Nova Convention).
- [Cinema](https://jacobhthomas.com/cinema): four favorite films (Brakhage, Beebe, Lillian Schwartz, Deren), screenings attended, a program around one film (Ken Russell's Mahler), fourteen double features, others' programs with full film lists, Letterboxd lists, a study list of experimental film, and resources for watching, renting, reading and owning films.
- [November 2026](https://jacobhthomas.com/cinema/november-2026): this month's cinema watchlist, filterable by new releases, archive screenings, rewatches, 35mm and 16mm.
- [Library](https://jacobhthomas.com/library): two shelves. Library: favorite books, albums and works, searchable and sortable. Antilibrary (`/library?shelf=anti`): everything he means to watch or read, from his Letterboxd watchlist and Goodreads to-read shelf, updated daily from [antilibrary.json](https://jacobhthomas.com/antilibrary.json).
- [Literature](https://jacobhthomas.com/literature): literature resources.
- [Undergraduate](https://jacobhthomas.com/undergraduate): a guide for undergraduates in progress, starting with [student travel funding](https://jacobhthomas.com/undergraduate/travel), research and SIAM resources.
- [Fitness](https://jacobhthomas.com/fitness): running, hiking and cycling. Short notes and resources: urban and woodland hikes and John Muir; a guide to riding in the city, an argument against vehicular cycling, riding checklists and cycling films. Deliberately no metrics or records.

## Data

- [llms-full.txt](https://jacobhthomas.com/llms-full.txt): the text of every page in one file, regenerated daily.
- [last-watched.json](https://jacobhthomas.com/last-watched.json): the last film logged on Letterboxd, updated hourly.
- [now-reading.json](https://jacobhthomas.com/now-reading.json): the book currently being read on Goodreads, updated hourly.

## Elsewhere

- [GitHub](https://github.com/jacobhthomas): the site's source is in jacobhthomas/website.
- [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/glitchdream/)
- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/159248821-jacob-h-thomas)
- [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/getf2xhxuv7qo9it9e6lr8hlb)
- [Concert Archives](https://www.concertarchives.org/jacobhthomas)
- [Discogs](https://www.discogs.com/user/jacobhthomas)

## Optional

- [404](https://jacobhthomas.com/404.html): a word graph, and an "I'm feeling lucky" link to a random page.