This issue of technology review is unusual in so many ways it's hard to know where to begin describing them.

First of all, it's a special issue devoted to "The State of Innovation," following up on the "TR100" issue of a year ago, in which we named 100 young innovators to watch. Rather than repeating ourselves in this Annual Innovation Issue, we've taken a different tack. This time we've picked 10 key areas of emerging technology to watch. The editors of Technology Review, in consultation with top technology experts at MIT and elsewhere, predict that these 10 fields will have major impact on our lives in the decade to come. And we've chosen one person in each field who exemplifies the field's promise.

To complement the "TR10," we're offering you a full range of other stories, including two we're particularly proud of: a vision of the future of computing by John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox PARC, the famous Palo Alto research outfit, and the longest interview in some time by Lou Gerstner, IBM's formidable chief executive. I'm especially impressed by Gerstner's skepticism about the "New Economy."