Origins

The word Equalia is derived from the word Qualia, adding the E for “electronic” or “electric”, as-in “email”, “ecommerce” or “electric vehicle”.

Qualia is a term used in philosophy to refer to individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. Said another way, it is the pure perception of something, without the comparison to, or contemplation of, other familiar references. An example of Qualia is how we perceive the color red. There is no way to describe the color red to someone blind since birth. Another example would be how a newborn-baby perceives everything, having no previous references to interfere with the purity of their perception.

This concept is meaningful to our company because we believe the core of innovation is to look at something familiar in a completely pure, new way – without the baggage or prejudice we all inevitably carry. The word Equalia was also introduced in the popular television show “The Simpsons”. The optimistic and eco-friendly young girl, Lisa, and her friend imagined a fictional kingdom with fairies, gnomes and unicorns – even a special 'Two-nicorn' – where everybody is equal. Though this cultural reference was not a factor in the name selection, the fact that Equalia contains in it the word Equal resonated with the founder’s core values while we passively look for our own 'Two-nicorn'.

Finally, the word Qualia has – along with the element of surprise - won many a Scrabble game because it is very short and uses the letter Q, which is worth 10 points alone.