By Kate Milberry

There’s little question that much of the conflict in the world arises from disagreement. I want your land, but you live there and don’t want to give it to me. You want my resources, but I don’t think you have a right to take them. And on and on, throughout history, humans have disagreed, and fought over those disagreements, sometimes—often—with devastating outcomes. With all our cultural and technological advances, we have not been able to eliminate the human want and environmental destruction that plagues our planet. We have yet to achieve what Marcuse called the “pacification of human existence” where humanity triumphs in its struggle for survival via a technological base that supports life in all its forms.

But imagine technology designed and built with harmony in mind – not only as an end goal, but baked right in, as it were. What would society look like if our tools reflected the goals of fairness, equality, peace, collaboration and sharing that would bring balance to this planet? Today human civilization relies on a heavily polluting industrial complex that produces technologies of death, destruction and mass distraction, motivated by power, greed and profit. But it doesn’t have to be like that. And indeed, there are people around the world working for peace and prosperity for all, envisioning a new and different world, another, better world.

Ethelo is part of that vision. It is a revolution in decision-making, a powerful engine that drives better decisions based on maximizing stakeholder satisfaction and minimizing group discord. By presenting decision-makers with the most supported outcome, parsed via its unique patent-pending algorithm from amongst large stakeholder-input datasets, Ethelo discovers a harmonious path forward. Where previously there may have been conflict, dissatisfaction or a “work-to-rule” mentality, Ethelo offers outcomes that a vast majority of stakeholders can not only live with, but also get behind; conflict dissolves and solutions appear.

Ethelo can be used to canvas the will and mood of stakeholders groups – large or small, corporate or community, geographically distributed or not – facing decisions ranging from single issue to complex and multi-faceted. Because we think big at Ethelo, try on this scenario for size:

Currently there is contentious debate at the International Criminal Court over the Crime of Aggression, referred to as the “supreme international crime” at Nuremberg. Only five countries have ratified the amendments that will criminalize the planning, preparation, initiation or execution of an act of aggression that violates the Charter of the United Nations. This includes the invasion, attack, military occupation, annexation, bombardment or blockade by the armed forces of one state against another. Ratification from 30 member states is needed by the end of 2016 in order for the crime to come under the jurisdiction of the ICC. But a divide has emerged between smaller nations desiring to criminalize illegal war making and the bigger nations, who perhaps want to keep their options open. In particular, larger countries such as the US take issue with the definition of the Crime of Aggression.

How could Ethelo be applied to this impasse? Imagine an online space where member countries could define the issue(s) and within each issue, identify options for possible solutions, working independently – or collectively where proposals are similar. There could be a handful of issues – or dozens – each with its own options and sub-options, enabling each country or voting bloc to fine-tune their preferences over the many facets of the decision.

Then imagine a powerful decision-making engine that would parse and rank the thousands of possible outcomes according to which ones will have the greatest support from the collective—in this case UN member states—taking into account resistance which arises naturally from feelings of inequality. The result? A new kind of decision that creates equality of satisfaction among participants, promoting harmony and giving outcomes the best chance to work in the real world.

By optimizing the collective will or intention of the group, Ethelo offers a new path forward, a way around the impasse, be it in your workplace, your community or the international stage.

Ethelo is a gamechanger because it makes stakeholder satisfaction, whether a two-party arbitration or world peace, a realistic expectation. And it’s going to change the world, one decision at a time.