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is not yet present. The // classes are added to so styling immediately reflects the current // toolbar state. The classes are removed after the toolbar completes // initialization. const classesToAdd = ['toolbar-loading', 'toolbar-anti-flicker']; if (toolbarState) { const { orientation, hasActiveTab, isFixed, activeTray, activeTabId, isOriented, userButtonMinWidth } = toolbarState; classesToAdd.push( orientation ? `toolbar-` + orientation + `` : 'toolbar-horizontal', ); if (hasActiveTab !== false) { classesToAdd.push('toolbar-tray-open'); } if (isFixed) { classesToAdd.push('toolbar-fixed'); } if (isOriented) { classesToAdd.push('toolbar-oriented'); } if (activeTray) { // These styles are added so the active tab/tray styles are present // immediately instead of "flickering" on as the toolbar initializes. In // instances where a tray is lazy loaded, these styles facilitate the // lazy loaded tray appearing gracefully and without reflow. const styleContent = ` .toolbar-loading #` + activeTabId + ` { background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25) 20%, transparent 200%); } .toolbar-loading #` + activeTabId + `-tray { display: block; box-shadow: -1px 0 5px 2px rgb(0 0 0 / 33%); border-right: 1px solid #aaa; background-color: #f5f5f5; z-index: 0; } .toolbar-loading.toolbar-vertical.toolbar-tray-open #` + activeTabId + `-tray { width: 15rem; height: 100vh; } .toolbar-loading.toolbar-horizontal :not(#` + activeTray + `) > .toolbar-lining {opacity: 0}`; const style = document.createElement('style'); style.textContent = styleContent; style.setAttribute('data-toolbar-anti-flicker-loading', true); document.querySelector('head').appendChild(style); if (userButtonMinWidth) { const userButtonStyle = document.createElement('style'); userButtonStyle.textContent = `#toolbar-item-user {min-width: ` + userButtonMinWidth +`px;}` document.querySelector('head').appendChild(userButtonStyle); } } } document.querySelector('html').classList.add(...classesToAdd); })(); Calvin Business Dean Highlights 10 Technologies Driving the Future of Business - News & Stories | 鶹

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Calvin Business Dean Highlights 10 Technologies Driving the Future of Business

Tue, Jan 04, 2022
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Regardless of where you look – health care, higher education, or manufacturing – digital technology is rapidly changing the business landscape.

Jim Ludema, dean of the 鶹 School of Business, recently spoke with a group of area business leaders about 10 technologies shaping the future of business.

“This moment is called many things such as the fourth industrial revolution or the virtual age, but I like the language used by Guy Perelmuter in his book, Present Future,” said Ludema. “He calls it the ‘Deep Tech Revolution’ because exponential technologies are beginning to converge that in the next 10 years will redefine reality as we know it.”

The technologies include:

  • Quantum computing
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Networks
  • Sensors
  • Robotics
  • Virtual reality
  • 3D printing
  • Blockchain
  • Nanotechnology
  • Biotechnology

While these technologies create previously unimaginable possibilities, they also raise fundamental questions about the nature of God, reality, and life itself.

“The technologies present all kinds of business opportunities, and they also raise all kinds of theological, philosophical, scientific, technical, and ethical challenges,” said Ludema. “It’s mind blowing to think of the rapid, life-changing effects they will have on society.”

Ludema took guests on a deeper dive into what each technology means, drawing from Perelmuter’s work and the books The Future is Faster Than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, and Full-Spectrum Thinking by futurist Bob Johansen.

“As Christian business leaders, we must be on the forefront of developing and applying these exponential technologies and influencing how they get used,” said Ludema. “We must be guided by our fundamental principles. First, in the words of the contemporary testimony of the Christian Reformed Church, ‘Our World Belongs to God,’ and this invites us to rejoice in the goodness of God and offer our hearts and lives to do God’s work in the world. There is no more powerful and enlivening truth than that.”

Second, Ludema reminded guests that as business leaders, we are stewards, trustees, and caretakers of God’s creation.

“All these technologies, and the products and services we create from them belong to God and God alone, and our job is to care for them and engage with them virtuously, lovingly, and with mercy and justice the way God cares for and engages with us.”

Third, Ludema reminded guests that they are all made in the image of God, and the work we do with exponential technologies must reflect the characteristics of God.

“God is relational, so the work we do with these technologies must flow out of the relationships we have with the community around us, and they must flow back to support, enrich, and benefit those same communities,” said Ludema. “And God is good, so our work too must aim for outcomes that are good; it must aim for virtue, substance, meaning, and excellence.”

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