Peter B Lloyd home page

Welcome to my personal home page. It is mostly about my philosophical writings, which are largely in the fields of consciousness and parapsychology, but also touching on my other area of interest, the history of subway maps.

1. About me

For most of my career, I have worked as a software developer (mostly in Fortran), but outside the day-job, I have for many years being studying -- and, since the 1990s publishing -- in the unrelated subject of the philosophy of mind. Since the late 1990s, I have been collecting historical maps of underground railway networks, and from 2005 have been involved in writing and publishing in this area too.

Philosophy - writing projects: In the early 1990s, I published some articles on the mind-body problem and ethics in the popular philosophy magazine Philosophy Now and in 1999, I self-published two books on consciousness, paranormal phenomena, and George Berkeley's theory of mental monism. (This is the theory that the ultimate nature of reality is consciousness.) I sold about 300 copies via the internet and at conferences, but big bookshops are very resistant to self-published books. In 2005, I had a long chapter (forty-four pages) on mental monism published in an academic book edited by Alexander Batthyany and Avshalom Elitzur. Unfortunately the publisher (Ontos Verlag) over-priced the book and didn't market it with any vigour. As it's probably no longer in print, I have uploaded my chapter as a PDF here. Meanwhile, BenBella Books in Texas published a series of essays I wrote on philosophical aspects of popular science fiction and fantasy (see below).

Philosophy - video & conference projects: In 2006, frustrated by the difficulty of reaching a large audience in print, I embarked on the Metatopia project to build a library of video interviews with people working in the field of consciousness. This got off to a good start and in 2007 morphed into a large conference (Metageum '07) in which I brought together 75 speakers and practitioners around the theme of Neolithic consciousness. This went well as an event but was a disaster financially, so I had to go back to my day-job in software development, where I am still working to pay off the debts incurred by Metageum. A much smaller follow-up event (Metageum 09) was held in Treadwell's Bookshop in London in March 2009. This had some excellent contributions and explorations, but will almost certainly be the last Metageum.

Maps: I have always loved maps, but did not pay attention to underground maps until 1997, when a colleague gave me a 1957 London Tube map, patched up with Sellotape. I was immediately hooked and over the coming years have built up a substantial collection of maps the great transit systems of London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, and Moscow, and numerous maps from other cities. In August 2001, I gave a talk at the London Underground Railway Society, where I met up with Mark Ovenden, and began a collaboration that led to the first ever history of the Paris Metro map Paris Style: Map and Station Design, published in the UK in 2008, and by Penguin in the US in 2009. From 2004, I have been working on the first history of the New York Subway map. This is due for completion in 2011. Meanwhile: Blog entries pertaining to transit maps: The 1979 New York City Subway Map: A Question of Authorship, Part I and Part II in Paul Shaw's blog, Blue Pencil.

Blogs

"Zen and the Art of Metro Maps" (metromapart.blogspot.com)
Comments and reflections on metro maps. Originally, I started this when I was selling off my map collection to survive financially after the Metageum meltdown. My idea was hat each day I would blog about the most interesting map I had had to sell that day. Then I got a full-time job, and the blogging and fire-sale stopped. I have started blogging again, as things are changing ...
"City Philosopher" (cityphilosopher.blogspot.com)
Philosophically oriented thoughts about the few cultural events that I manage to find time for in the city I happen to be living in (currently London): lectures, films, exhibitions, happenings.

Recent & forthcoming events

Forthcoming:

Friday 13th April 2012
I shall again be attending the conference Toward a Science of Consciousness (www.consciousness.arizona.edu) in Arizona. This is the tenth of these major biennial events, and I think I have been to about half of them since they started in the early 1990s. This year I am favoured with a speaking slot on the concurrent sessions, where I shall talk on retro-causality from the perspective of Berkeleian mental monism. (Retrocausality is supposed to be one of the 'official themes' of the conference. But it seems to me that parapsychology is very poorly represented in this year's schedule.)
Autumn 2012
My book Vignelli: Transit Maps is due to be published by Cary Graphic Art Press at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY. I shall endeavour to arrange some talks to promote it.

Recent:

30th June 2011
Illustrated lecture on the history of the New York City subway map, at the Vignelli Design Center, Rochester, NY.
31st January 2011
Illustrated lecture on the history of the New York City subway map, in Paul Shaw's class at Parsons New School for Design, Manhattan, NY.
6th October 2010
Philosophy For All (London): In their Kant's Cave series (): I gave an illustrated talk entitled Consciousness: The Hard Problem has been Solved but Science does not the Solution..
20th October 2010
Philosophy For All (London): The PFA philosophical film night: South Park and censorship.

3. Conference papers & other essays

Mental Monism Considered as a Solution to the Mind-Body Problem (PDF, 2005)
This is my best attempt at a clear and concise argument for the theory that consciousnes is the ultimate reality.

This was published in ‘Mind and its Place in the World: Non-Reductionist Approaches to the Ontology of Consciousness’, edited by Alexander Batthyany and Avshalom Elitzur, published by Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt, December 2005.
Length: 44 pages.

Application of Mental Monism to Parapsychology (PDF, 2005)
If mental monism is correct, what implications does it have for explaining how psi phenomena work? In this essay, I apply mental monism to parapsychology, and argue that it provides the only serious pointer so far to an explanatory framework for psi.

This is an unpublished follow-on from the published essay Mental Monism Considered as a Solution to the Mind-Body Problem, in ‘Mind and its Place in the World: Non-Reductionist Approaches to the Ontology of Consciousness’ (see above). It was originally planned as a final section of that essay but, at forty-four pages the latter was already oversize, so the parapsychology section was dropped from that publication.
Length: 3,760 words.

Berkeleian model of psi phenomena
On using Berkeley's immaterialist philosophy as a framework for understanding paranormal phenomena.

Poster paper presented at the international conference, Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, April 2000.
Length: 2,100 words.

Berkeleian Ontology as a Fundamental Approach to Consciousness
This paper presents a modernised version of Berkeley's semantic argument for mental monism, and examines the implications of this ontology for the foundations of parapsychology.

Poster paper presented at the international conference, Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tokyo, May 1999.
Length: 20,l200 words.

Berkeley Revisited: The Hard Problem Considered Easy
What Chalmers calls the 'hard problem' of consciousness, which is the Cartesian mind-body problem, admits of an easy solution with Berkeley's mental monism, which also makes possible a rational account of psi phenomena.

Poster paper presented at the international conference, Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, April 1998.
Length: 3,800 words.

Discussion of Amit Goswami's Science Within Consciousness
A short and informal discussion of Goswami's concept of consciousness and its relation to physics. I argue that Goswami's use of the term 'consciousness' is very different from its use in mainstream consciousness studies, as exemplified by David Chalmers' writings.

Informal web essay, 1999.
Length: 3,000 words.

4. Podcasts

I have started an experimental series of podcasts on philosophical topics. To subscribe, right-click the RSS logo, copy the link, and paste it into your RSS feed. To play individual recordings now, click the speaker icon.

Philosophical Mindfuck

1. Thinking Matter If your brain can be conscious, why can't your chair? What light does Frank Jackson's Black and White Mary throw on the nature of consciousness?

2. Cyborg Experience What is it like to be a cyborg? What would you feel if your brain cells were to be replaced, one by one, with electronic devices? Does this thought-experiment provided solid support for materialism?

4. Publications

4.1 Book publications

Chapters written by Peter B Lloyd, published elsewhere ...
Mental Monism Considered as a Solution to the Mind-Body Problem This essay was commissioned by Alexander Batthyany and is a concise statement and defence of Berkeleyan mental monism. pp 101-145 in: Mind and its Place in the World: Non-Reductionist Approaches to the Ontology of Consciousness, edited by Alexander Batthyany and Avshalom Elitzur, published by Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt, December 2005. Ordering: The book can be purchased from Ontos (www.ontosverlag.com) as a hardcopy (€94) or as an e-book at €30. My own chapter in this book is available as a free PDF.

Books written by Peter B Lloyd, published by Whole-Being Books, London ...
Exegesis of the Matrix An in-depth analysis of the first two Matrix films. This evolved from two essays: the "Glitches in the Matrix" commissioned by Glenn Yeffeth of BenBella Books, and the "Glitches Reloaded" essay commissioned by the editor of Ray Kurzweil's web site. Published by: Whole-Being Books, November 2003. Ordering: Copies can be purchased from www.amazon.co.uk.

Consciousness and Berkeley's Metaphysics. An intensive defence of George Berkeley's theory of immaterialism, in the context of the mind-body problem and modern consciousness studies. Published by Whole-Being Books (formerly Ursa Software), 200 pp, July 1999. Synopsis: The mind-body problem in philosophy poses the question: how does the conscious mind relate to the material body? Traditionally, there have been three main responses: physical monism, which maintains that the conscious mind is an illusion; dualism, which says that mind and matter are both equally real; and mental monism, which insists that the physical world is a convenient fiction, This book provides a sustained defence of mental monism. Origins: I started sketching out notes for this book (and the accompanying book on the paranormal) when I was an undergraduate student in Cardiff in 1981. I worked on it, on and off, for a number of years. I eventually had a big push on it when I was working in Luxembourg in 1998 and 1999, and had a lot of free time in the evenings and weekends. I self-published the two books in July 1999. Ordering: Copies can be purchased from www.amazon.co.uk.

Paranormal Phenomena and Berkeley's Metaphysics Taking Berkeley's theory of mental monism, or immaterialism as he called it,this book examines ways of understanding a range of paranormal phenomena. This is a follow-on from the previous book. Published by Whole-Being Books (formerly Ursa Software), 341 pp, July 1999. Ordering: Copies can be purchased from www.amazon.co.uk.
Chapters written by Peter B Lloyd, in anthologies published by BenBella Books
Military Use of Artificial Consciousness: Special Interest Group Briefing. A discussion of the consciousness of Cylon humanoids in the first two seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica television series. Published in: So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, edited by Richard Hatch, published on 28th October 2006, by BenBella Books (www.benbellabooks.com). Synopsis: According to the story-line of the new Battlestar Galactica TV series, mankind created robots called Cylons. They, in due course, rebelled against their human masters and developed androids with synthetic flesh and bone, and synthetic brain tissue. Outwardly, they look and behave just like humans. They talk as if they have human-like consciousness. This essay is an imagined meeting of Cylons, in which the Cylon research scientists try to explain to their military top brass (none of whom possess consciousness) just what 'artificial consciousness' is, and how it can be harnessed by the military in their war against humans. Ordering: This book is available from BenBella Books' own web site (www.benbellabooks.com), and you can also get it from Amazon US, www.amazon.com, and it Amazon UK, www.amazon.co.uk.

Superman's Moral Evolution, This essay examines Superman's attitude to violence and the rule of law in the early years of the 'Golden Era' of Superman Comics (1938-1943), and contrasts this with his more nuanced modern stance. Published in: pp 181-198, in: The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, edited by Glenn Yeffeth, published April 2006 by BenBella Books (www.benbellabooks.com). Synopsis: Widely known as a good guy, queaky clean, and honour-bound not to take human life, Superman in his early days had somewhat a lax attitude toward ethics. He would habitually assault suspects, torture, and kill people - all whilst maintaining the rhetoric that he was upholding law and order and the American Way of Life. Thankfully, he has moved on a long way since then. He has become reflective, sometimes even introverted, and has developed a more nuanced stance in his defence of the American Way of Life. Ordering: This is available from BenBella Books own web site: www.benbellabooks.com in the US, or from Amazon US, www.amazon.com or from Amazon UK,www.amazon.co.uk.

Glitches in the Matrix ... and How to Fix Them This essay was commissioned by Glenn Yeffeth and analyses scientific questions about how the universal virtual reality of the Matrix might work. It also touches on the supposed consciousness of the Agents. Published in: pp 103-124, in: Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in the The Matrix, edited by Glenn Yeffeth, published April 2003 by BenBella Books (www.benbellabooks.com). Synopsis: The Matrix depicts a worldwide virtual reality, in which humans are enslaved. Is this possible? Are AI agents that police this world conscious? Ordering: This is available from BenBella Books own web site: www.benbellabooks.com in the US, or or from Amazon US, www.amazon.com, or from Amazon in the UK, www.amazon.co.uk.

Book edited by Peter B Lloyd, published by Whole-Being Books ...
I'm Afraid of Hypnosis but I Don't Know Why Written by Deborah Marshall-Warren A critique of common misapprehension and fear about hypnosis. Reassures people who are thinking about undergoing hypnotherapy, by explaining what goes on in a hypnotherapy session, and addresses the specific concerns that people commonly have. Published by: WHole-Being Books, 268 pp, March 2003. Ordering: Copies can be purchased from www.amazon.co.uk.

4.2 DVD publications

Interviews published on the Matrix DVD boxed set by Warner Brothers.

The Hard Problem: The Science behind the Fiction and
Return to Source: Philosophy and 'The Matrix'

These interviews were recorded by Josh Oreck in London. They cover aspects of the allusions to science, philosophy. and religion found in the Matrix trilogy.

Ordering: Available from www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk.

4 Other web sites maintained by me

www.marshall-warren.com is Deborah Marshall-Warren's web site, concerning interactive hypnotherapy. Deborah sees clients for hypnotherapy in London, Malta, and Six Senses Spas in Thailand and the Maldives.

	1. Thinking Matter If your brain can be conscious, why can't your chair? What light does Frank Jackson's Black and White Mary throw on the nature of consciousness?
	2. Cyborg Experience What is it like to be a cyborg? What would you feel if your brain cells were to be replaced, one by one, with electronic devices? Does this thought-experiment provided solid support for materialism?