Peter B. Lloyd graduated in mathematics at Cardiff University, Wales, where he stayed on to carry out research in solar engineering from 1981.

From 1987, he worked as a software developer in the ISIS medical research group in the University of Oxford. The ISIS group carried out what were, at the time, the largest clinical trials of medical interventions ever executed. With tens of thousands of patients recruited from intensive care units around the world, the trials were able to demonstrate the efficacy of emergency treatments for heart attacks such as streptokinase, a clot-dissolving drug that had previously been dismissed as too dangerous to use. And to demonstrate the lack of advantage of an expensive equivalent drug, tPA, derived from genetic engineering.

While in Oxford, he pursued what had previously been a private interest in philosophy by studying under Dr. Michael Lockwood at the Oxford University Department for External Studies, and sitting in on seminars and lectures in philosophy. His main interest was consciousness and the mind-body problem.

Having previously become convinced that George Berkeley had solved the mind-body problem in 1710, he found it disappointing and frustrating that academic philosophy was lagging behind in this area. In the 1990s, he started publishing articles arguing for Berkeley's theory of mental monism in the popular magazine Philosophy Now, and presenting papers at the Tucson conferences, "Toward a Science of Consciousness." Frustrated by the refusal of the philosophical community to address mental monism seriously, he self-published two books, Consciousness and Berkeley's Metaphysics and Paranormal Phenomena and Berkeley's Metaphysics in July 1999. Although these books continue to sell, this analysis of the mind-body problem is still not heard widely enough.

In 2002, he was invited to contribute a chapter to Glenn Yeffeth's anthology, Taking the Red Pill. He was delighted to take up this opportunity as he regards The Matrix as a rare vehicle for bringing to a popular audience the concept that the everyday world is a virtual construct—which is the starting point for Berkeley's philosophical theory of mental monism.

Since 1994 he has worked as a freelance software developer, carrying out work for the UK National Grid, the European Space Agency, and Nortel Networks, among others. Philosophy remains an active sideline (in JCS Online and elsewhere) until he can find a way to earn a living in this area.

Besides philosophy, he has a curious passion for underground railway maps. He lives in London, England, with his wife, Deborah Marshall-Warren, a leading figure in hypnotherapy. He is the editor of Deborah's second book on hypnotherapy, due for publication in March 2003.

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