Tom Barbalet
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Tom Barbalet is the creator of Noble Ape, editor of Biota.org and co-chair of the IGDA Intellectual Property Rights SIG.
Born in Australia in the mid-1970s, Barbalet developed a series of interpreters, compilers, anti-viral programs and the Schmuck Quest series of graphics/text adventure games in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In June 1996, as an undergraduate Barbalet put a collection of his landscape viewing and cognitive simulation demo programs together and created the artificial life development Noble Ape (originally called the Nervana Project).
The Noble Ape development was attributed to;
- Barbalet's travels around Malaysia and observation of wild monkeys living on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
- a dare with another student in creating a true cognitive simulation in stark contrast to the academic views of the university Barbalet was attending.
The Noble Ape development continues on to this day.
Barbalet moved to the Bay Area in 1999 following an article by new media theorist Douglas Rushkoff. There he spent time with Steve Wozniak and John Draper, before moving to the United Kingdom and settling in Wilmslow in 2001. In 2005, Barbalet moved to Las Vegas with his wife.
