Ok, the question has come up, "Why Infinite Instant?" Well the flip answer is that all the good domain names were already taken: microsoft.com, hoovercain.com, boeing.com, d6.com, gaspowered.com, audiusa.com, radgametools.com, whalebonepro.com, scoy.com, etc. And I won't even mention any names based on my ray tracer, Vivid. That at least answers why it's not anything cool. Why it turned out to be Infinite Instant is a little more involved. First of all, I read a lot of science fiction. One of my favorite authors is Iain M. Banks. Check him out if you have a chance. The phrase "infinite instant" appears in the beginning of his book Feersum Endjinn and striking a chord, it stuck in my mind.

Then, it was as though everything was stripped away: sensation, memory, self, even the notion of existence that underlies reality--all seemed to have vanished utterly, their passing marked only by the realization that they had disappeared, before that too ceased to have any meaning, and for an indefinite, infinite instant, there was only the awareness of something; something that possessed no mind, no purpose and no thought, except the knowledge that it was.

-- Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn

The second reason is a little more personal. I've had moments in my life where it felt like everything was right with the world. These moments have been rare, just a few, but moving enough to leave a strong impression on me. During these moments the sense of well-being is almost overwhelming. At the same time though, I can already feel it slipping away even as I struggle to hold on. They last for a couple of seconds at most but the emotional impact seems to be able to go on for months or even years. Calling such a moment an "infinite instant" seems as good a name as any.

Every good comedian will tell you that you need to list things in threes. To fulfill my trinity I give you reason number three. It has to do with my hobby of audio recording. I love working with bands recording their music, both in live performances and in the studio. The root of my love for recording is actually quite similar to my love of computer graphics in that they both combine technical, disciplined engineering with imaginitive, artful creation. Music, as an art form, is interesting in that it is so ephemeral. For a melody to even exist the first notes must fade to nothingness making room for the next. It's only in our minds that we take the memories and finally put together the compostion. Artists have often worked toward this fleeting nature in other media as it seems to layer new meanings onto their work, be it sidewalk chalk drawings to be erased by the passage of preoccupied people or William Gibson's Agrippa, a poem sold with an electronic reader which was designed to erase the poem after being read once. In contrast the act of recording music strives for the opposite. Whether trying to capture a live performance or creating something in the studio never heard before the recording engineer's goal is to take a moment in time and make it last forever. An "infinite instant" if you will.

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