Chin up!

(Fortune) -- Goodness gracious, fellow capitalists - I've never seen such a bunch of long faces! Where's that courageous can-do spirit that has forged growth out of fictional developments for so many years?

Bubbles of the future.

Sure, the banks are crunching down like matter into a black hole, and the economy is dragging itself out of the toilet on both knees, hacking and wheezing, but that's when people like us get going, right? That's when we look for the new opportunities that lie on the street before us like nuggets of gold in a virgin stream. And when those clumps of ore do not appear? Do we not spin whatever pyrite lies about into something approaching the real thing?

The good news for those who want to create something out of nothing is that the shapes of the next great bubbles of mercantile activity are clear. Some of them may even turn out to be real.

Robotics - At some point somebody will invent a killer bot that does more than vacuum the rumpus room. Smart investors will be there ahead of time, digging a big, fat turnip from this well-fertilized field.

Nanotechnology - Big money for teeny-weeny inventions is clearly on the way. Submicroscopic entities that bridge the gap between living and nonliving creatures will be fabricated and/or bred in itsy-bitsy labs.

Some will dispense medication via ingestible tablets, deciding in their minuscule proto-brains when and where you get to receive that bolt of endorphins that permits you to kick butt at the next sales conference. Other nanodroids will be molded into office furniture that knows its occupant so intimately it can give him or her a pretty fair back rub. The future is as yet unclear, a factor that always works to the benefit of potential bubbles. A word to the nano-wise should be micro-sufficient.

Greenware - Any baby-boomer who has failed to recycle a cardboard box in front of a 12-year-old knows the level of contempt the younger generation holds for such miscreants. Windmills that generate power... mulch farms... firms that reduce our carbon shoe size... all will be recipients of passionate investment by a society far more enlightened than ours. Those who get on that elevator early will be at the fiduciary penthouse while others are standing around in the lobby waiting for the next available car.

Human genome schmutz - Genetic research has been held back recently by a series of disasters too terrible to mention in this venue - or even look up right now, since we're very busy. But the three-headed midget-sheep problem will be solved by 2014, and recombinant DNA, stem-cell, and mitochondrial transmogrification technology will begin making inroads into the problem of aging, extending human life to its ultimate limit and even beyond, particularly for really rich people, who are on everybody's nerves already. Another enormous opportunity for confabulators here.

Electronic wetware - Right now we all have to walk around with little gizmos sticking out of our pockets and our heads, and tote heavy wallets jammed with plastic. One day all those accouterments will be surgically implanted.

For years I have been waiting to invest in a company that can figure out how to wire the human skull for two-way communication and digital music. There are entire sections of bone and soft tissue available for that purpose, yet nobody has come up with a solution. Don't worry. Somebody will. Also inevitable is the invention of an identity module that can be placed subcutaneously, providing everything from banking information to transit and credit card data quite literally at the tips of our fingers.

That's not all. Even with the success of genetic longevity technology, it's clear that the human of the future will be partly cybernetic and prosthetic. The companies that figure out how to get that interface accomplished without infecting the neural system of the recipient will be in for some big asset appreciation.

Fried chicken - People will always like fried chicken. Since the invention of the chicken, in fact, people have been looking for a better way to fry it. Even if none of this other stuff pans out, there will always be room for fried chicken, right?

Stanley Bing's new book, Executricks, or How to Retire While You're Still Working (Collins), will be published in June.