FENCROFT LTD

Peter Lloyd Fencroft Ltd: software consultancy
Fencroft Ltd is a consultancy based in London, England. Formerly existing since February 1995 as the software consultancy Ursa Software Ltd, the company Fencroft Ltd is developing interests in publishing (trading as Whole-Being Books) and public transport cartography (trading as Metronexco). The director is Peter B. Lloyd. Fencroft carries out software design and development in various fields. Historically, this has mostly been in Fortran. Despite being an inherently superior programming language, Fortran has lost favour in the fickle world of computer fashions. Fencroft has therefore been carrying out software design and development in other areas, recently in Nortel interactive-voice response (IVR) systems.

Fencroft Ltd: authoring & publishing
Fencroft also runs a few web sites and is putting an increasing effort into book publishing and marketing. In connection with the latter, Peter B Lloyd launched his latest independent book (Exegesis of the Matrix) in November 2003. His latest publication is Mental monism considered as a solution to the mind-body problem, in pp 101-144 of the book Mind and its Place in the World: Non-Reductionist Approaches to the Ontology of Consciousness, edited by Alexander Batthyany & Avshalom Elitzur (Frankfurt: Ontos, 16th December 2005.

Events
Peter B. Lloyd will be giving a presentation at the biennial international conference, Toward a Science of Consciousness in Tucson, Arizona (Monday 3rd April to Saturday 8th April 2006). The talk will be entitled Individuation of personal minds in panexperientialist models and will be in the Ontology session on Friday 7th April, from 4:30 to 6:35 pm.

Email: website at fencroft.com. (Replace "at" with "@".)

CURRENT PROJECTS

1. Book marketing

  • Cinema
    Cover of 'Exegesis of the Matrix' On 4th November 2003, Whole-Being Books published the book, Exegesis of the Matrix (289 pages, paperback, ISBN 1-902987-09-8), providing an in-depth analysis of the science, technology, philosophy, religion, and politics of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. You can purchase copies from amazon.co.uk. Amazon lets you order this book worldwide. Full details, including table of contents, are listed on the Matrix page.

    A shorter version of the book was released as an e-book on 6th June 2003. This is still available for the time being here.

    Other essays on the Matrix are can be read on the Matrix page.

    More recently, Peter B. Lloyd was featured on the documentary DVD Roots of the Matrix, produced by Josh Oreck, in Warner Brothers' 10-disk DVD boxed set of the Matrix trilogy (available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com).

    Cover of 'Taking the Red Pill' On 1st April 2003, BenBella Books published an anthology of essays, Taking the Red Pill, on scientific and philosophical aspects of the film, The Matrix. Peter B. Lloyd contributed a chapter to this work. See www.benbellabooks.com, where copies can be bought online. It is also available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. A UK edition is being published by Summersdale on 15th May 2003, and can also be purchased through amazon.co.uk.

    This book has had positive reviews, such as the one by James Schellenberg:

    "I was not expecting much from this book, frankly, as the level of quality for any kind of movie-tie-in type material has always been fairly low. I'm happy to report that Yeffeth has assembled a top-notch selection of articles. Overall, the tone of the book is several steps above typical gushy movie-related writing, like making-of books; in fact, this book would be quite appropriate for an introductory university-level course and perfect for anyone studying philosophy through science fiction. ... Taking the Red Pill is a worthwhile collection of essays, a book of surprising depth."
    For a comparative discussion of books on The Matrix, see my Matrix reviews page.

  • Philosophy
    Cover of 'Mind and its Place in Nature' On 16th December 2005, Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt, will be publishing the book Mind and its Place in the World: Non-Reductionist Approaches to the Ontology of Consciousness(edited by Alexander Batthyany & Avshalom Elitzur), which includes a chapter by Peter B. Lloyd, Mental monism considered as a solution to the mind-body problem, pp 101-144. This essay is an extended defence of the Berkeleian theory that the physical world is ultimately a convenient fiction, and that primary reality is consciouness.

    The book can be purchased from Ontos (www.ontosverlag.com) as a hardcopy or as an e-book.

    Copies of the book will be available for sale at the Tucson 2006 conference.

  • Hypnotherapy
    Cover of 'Afraid of Hypnosis' On 30th March 2003, Whole-Being Books published Deborah Marshall-Warren's second book on hypnotherapy (edited by Peter B. Lloyd). The book can be purchased online on the Afraid of Hypnosis page, and through amazon.co.uk.

    The book has had positive reviews, such as the one by Dr Christopher Forester: "Above all, this book is a timely cry to take hypnotherapy seriously. Debunking the myths that surround it, it shows how hypnotherapy is a safe, natural way of engaging our natural abilities to heal, to break free, and to grow. For through hypnotherapy, the individual begins to take control of their own life and to wake up to the negative suggestions and images which surround us all. This is the freshest book I've read on the subject - a must for every therapist, student, trainer, and anyone interested in hypnosis and modern life."

  • Hypnotherapy
    Cover of 'Afraid of Hypnosis' Fencroft has also taken over the UK distribution for Deborah Marshall-Warren's book, "Mind Detox", published by Harper Collins. The book can be purchased online on the Mind Detox page.

  • Philosophy
    Cover of 'Paranormal Phenomena' In July 1999, Whole-Being Books (then trading as Ursa Software Ltd) published its first two books, both written by Peter B. Lloyd:

    Review comment for "Consciousness and Berkeley's Metaphysics" by David Lorimer in Network, the journal of the Scientific and Medical Network: "These books are not for the faint-hearted - they are technical, closely argued and erudite - but will interest those wrestling with problems raised by the philosophy of consciousness and who are looking for the kind of solution that makes consciousness primary rather than secondary."

  • Philosophy
    Whole-Being Books is the distributor (outside the US) for the first Armenian translation of George Berkeley's major work. Copies can be bought online at the International Berkeley Society site.

2. Web Sites

  • Underground railway maps
    Metronexco (the other trading name of Fencroft) trades in historical maps of underground railway networks via eBay, and is carrying out some research with a view to producing a software product.
  • Deborah Marshall-Warren: Whole-Being Hypnotherapy
    Deborah Marshall-Warren is a London hypnotherapist. Web site set up in 1996, and commercially successful.
  • Sally Thompson: Psychic Solutions
    Sally is a Tarot card reader, based in North London. Sally is available for both personal bookings and corporate entertainment events.
  • Angelika Simpson, vision therapist
    Angelika offers vision therapy, using the Bates Method.
  • International Berkeley Society
    The IBS organises conferences and seminars, and publishes scholarly works on George Berkeley. Fencroft acts as webmaster for this site, obtaining a small revenue stream from commissions on book sales via Amazon.

External links

  • Philosophy: If you are interested in philosophy, especially the philosophy of consciousness, you will find some interesting material in the Peter Lloyd's personal web site: Philosophy

  • Web design: If you are interested in the principles of good web design, you may like to visit Peter Hilton's Web Page Design principles.

  • Music: Dean Dyson and his band make top-quality live and recorded music in a class of their own: www.deandyson.com.

    Other Ursa Softwares ..

    Other companies called "Ursa Software" ...

    Last modified 26th April 2004.