Breki Tomasson

Breki Tomasson in a few paragraphs (and a list)

Welcome to my home page! Sit down for a spell and read up on who I am, what I do, and maybe even why I do it.

My name is Breki Tomasson. I am the founder of the CSICON Network, the Editor-in-Chief of The Extropist Examiner, the author of The Lonely Savage and - when I'm not thinking up stuff to post on one of those three blogs - also a shameless ego-blogger. I have an online presence on Twitter, Facebook and too many other sites to list, but those are the main ones.

But who are you really, I hear you ask (Or, at least, so I delude myself into thinking). Well; I'm a 29-year old Icelandic male living in a southern suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. I work with customer care and customer training at Ascom Network Testing. I've been in the telecom industry in one form or another for the past ten years with a brief 3 and a half-year sojourn at Uppsala University, where I studied the psychology and sociology of religion with a minor in the science of literature. I'm an atheist that was raised Catholic, member of the Swedish Pirate Party and convinced extropist. I've dabbled in secret societies, the creation of Swedish hip hop music, Discordianism, poetry writing and juggling. I also play an unhealthy amount of World of Warcraft. I think I might have Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder. I'm very good at talking to crowds and expressing myself in text, but still often fail at describing my thoughts in one-on-one situations. I tend to repeat myself, having forgotten whom I've told what. I have a Siberian Husky named John Locke, a mother, a father, a sister, and the most wonderful girlfriend in the world. I love them all and am fortunate to be loved by them.

I believe in improvement, often simply for the sake of improvement. I created The Lonely Savage to chronicle my own experiments and discoveries in fields of every-day efficiency enhancement; everything from brainstorming tools to tips on how to fall asleep easier. I also believe in the need to improve humanity on an individual and societal level, which is why I vote Pirate and have strong extropist ideas. I truly believe that we should aspire to live in a world without disease, hunger, warfare and artificial obstacles to self-actualization. I believe that we need to, over time, abandon money, patents and the idea of ownership by developing technologies that raise our living standards to a point where we siimply do not need any of these things any more.

There are a great many people whom I consider to be inspirations in my life. Apart from my friends - and you know who you are - I list a number of people who have influenced my life in one way or another. Unfortunately, the list may as well have been titled 'Old White Men', since every single one of them falls into that category. They are, in no particular order:

Robert Anton Wilson, who got me started on a fantastic journey that led to my discovery of so many of the others on this list. I am so grateful to have met him before he died.

George Carlin, a comedic genius and always ready to point out the obvious in ways that we've never seen it. I miss him.

Aleister Crowley, who saved me from almost certain monotheism by teaching me exercises that allowed me to see how much of the world that I thought was outside of me was actually within me.

Richard Bandler, for reducing the most complex animal on Earth to basic simplicity, allowing me to finally understand how wonderfully complicated we all are - and having me roaring with laughter as he did so!

Derren Brown, for showing me fascinating new real-world applications of the skills that I had no idea that I was already training myself in.

Timothy Leary, for challenging me to venture into modes of thought and views of reality that I would never otherwise have dared think imaginable.

Philip K. Dick, for teaching me that fiction doesn't have to be limited by something so simple as what people think of as 'reality'.

James Joyce, for reviving my interest in books once I had stopped feeling challenged by them.

Gene Roddenberry, for creating Star Trek; a TV-series that I grew up with and which shaped so much of what came to be my dreams of the future.

J.R.R Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Terry Pratchett and Raymond E. Feist for creating wonderful worlds, characters, mythologies, stories, religions and concepts, all of which I have been allowed to share.

To sum up, I am all of the above and more. No person can be summed up in a few short paragraphs and it would be foolish to even try - which doesn't stop us all from trying. Ultimately, I am nothing more than a regular human being with very regular passions, dreams, ambitions and goals. Nature and Nurture (Or "God", if you will) have been kind enough to bless me with certain strengths and weaknesses that I try to follow and embrace. I have been fortunate to end up in situations that have taught me much about who I am and what I can offer my friends, my family and the world in general. I love to learn. I love to create. I love to talk. I love to write. I love to teach. Hopefully I can find some way to use all these things for the betterment of humanity.