Ranier Fsadni writes:
Death crept suddenly on Philip Serracino Inglott, 37, who died a month ago today of a previously unsuspected congenital heart condition. His death has been a great loss not only to his wife, Vicky, his family and friends but also to philo-sophy and contem-porary culture.
He had just published his first paper, ‘Is it OK to be an Anonymous?’, after winning a competition at the Technical University of Delft, where he was a Ph.D. student researching the moral frameworks of the internet native generation. The incisive argument, about the ethics of activist hackers, has a twinkling humour and distinctive voice. The same style, ratcheted up, was also there in his family and social life.
The style was, first, physical: analytical clarity in the slow deep voice, humour in the gleaming eyes. He had it while playing Trivial Pursuit (sweeping all before him), walking the dog in the countryside with friends, dishing out his sought-after pancakes or wading into an online debate. The web is still strewn with Philippisms, like “hitting your head is pollution”.
The jokes and fun were a sign of seriousness, just like his modesty and self-described geekiness. For him, philosophy happened in the currents of everyday life and popular culture; gusts of humour helped philosophy take flight.
From his undergraduate days, he had combined his love of philosophy and IT with cultural enterprise. He was a founder member of the University of Malta’s first cultural cooperative and later helped set up the Virtual University of the Small States of the Commonwealth.
Once back in academe, he kept up his activism for Open Source and Open Access. Had he lived, he would have surely illuminated the political and ethical choices for an open information society.
But for those who knew him well – who heard him declare, at his wedding on a Dutch beach, that his wife Vicky was love itself; who always looked forward to his company, his learning and sense of fun – all this talk about unfulfilled potential will seem like straw. For a few, all-too-brief years, they knew a man with a rare, fully-realised ability to love life deeply, with a sly, curly smile.