I just finished reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. In it, he puts forth a convincing argument about the exponential growth of information technology. Long term (the next 10-20 years), Ray is very bullish in biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics and information technology in general. He is bearish real estate and commodities. As technology advances, commodities will be less important because they will be replaced by technology and even created with nanofactories. Real estate will become increasingly less in demand as more people move into and use virtual reality.

Manufacturing using molecular nanotechnology fabrication will also be far more efficient than contemporary manufacturing, which moves bulk materials from place to place in a relatively wasteful manner. Manufacturing today also devotes enormous energy resources to producing basic materials, such as steel. A typical nonfactory will be a tabletop device that can produce products ranging from computers to clothing. Larger products (such as vehicles, homes, and even additional nanofactories) will be produced as modular subsystems that large robots can then assemble. Waste heat, which accounts for the primary energy requirement for nanomanufacturing, will be captured and recycled.

The energy requirements for nanofactories are negligible. Drexler estimates that molecular manufacturing will be an energy generator rather than an energy consumer. According to Drexler, "A molecular manufacturing process can be driven by the chemical energy content of the feedstock materials, producing electrical energy as a by-product (if only to reduce the heat dissipation burden).... Using typical organic feedstock, and assuming oxidation of surplus hydrogen, reasonably efficient molecular manufacturing processes are net energy producers."

...Once we have full-immersion virtual-reality environments incorporating all of the senses, which will be feasible by the late 2020s, there will be no reason to utilize real offices. Real estate will become virtual."