Articles by Sonia Arrison

Sonia Arrison is an author and policy analyst who has studied the impact of new technologies on society for more than a decade. A Senior Fellow at the California-based Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and a columnist for TechNewsWorld, she is author of two previous books (Western Visions and Digital Dialog) as well as numerous PRI studies on technology issues. A frequent media contributor and guest, her work has appeared in many publications including CBS MarketWatch, CNN, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. She was also the host of a radio show called "digital dialogue" on the Voice America network and has been a repeat guest on National Public Radio and CNN's Headline News.

My new book, 100 Plus, is about how science and technology will allow us to live longer and healthier – and how that will change the world.  This topic may be newish for this site, but many of the key issues are not.  What happens to economic growth in this tech revolution?  How does innovation [...]

For those who wonder about the latest craziness coming from California, here is a summary.  It’s truly shocking that California policy makers are going after Silicon Valley, since it is one of the reasons the economy hasn’t completely tanked. From my recent TNW column: Facebook is having a tough month. First, it was revealed that the company [...]

In the latest WikiLeaks data dump, around a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables were published online. “Cablegate,” as it is being called, has revealed some rather startling information. Among the tech-relevant secrets, the State Department tasked agents to collect DNA and other biometric information on foreigners of interest. Specifically, U.S. officials were told that in addition to [...]

It’s been a tough week for the personal genomics testing marketplace.  First there were two long days of FDA meetings, and then today an Energy and Commerce Committee held hearings where the GAO announced the results of a “sting” operation into direct to consumer (DTC) genomics companies.   Below is the (brutal) GAO video.  As Daniel [...]

This is a hot topic in the Valley at the moment, and for good reason.  Here’s an excerpt from my column on the issue: Silicon Valley is known for innovative ideas in technology, and now some of the area’s greatest minds have come up with a new way to solve one of their biggest operational [...]

Here’s a rather disturbing article published by CNN today.  Apparently, many “states mandate that newborns be tested for anywhere between 28 and 54 different conditions, and the DNA samples are stored in state labs for anywhere from three months to indefinitely, depending on the state.” I live in California and we did have our baby [...]

Spike TV’s John Papola and GMU economics professor Russell Roberts teamed up to create an exceptional and entertaining “rap video” pitting John Maynard Keynes against F. A. Hayek.  If you ever wondered what would happen if the two famous economists went out drinking together, here’s one answer.  Now this is a great use of social [...]

Yesterday marked the beginning of the third annual US-China Internet Industry Forum (held this year in SF).  The purpose of the gathering is to increase mutual understanding of key business and policy issues in China and the US.  It is an invite-only event, so I was excited to be there with top government and technology [...]

I was stunned last week when I saw many prominent tech VCs and CEOs from Silicon Valley sign letters endorsing the FCC’s move towards Net Neutrality, since, if the rule making goes ahead, it will mean regulating the Internet.  I happen to know a bunch of these folks, so I decided to call them to [...]

To add to everything else that’s been said on TLF about Net neutrality, here is an article I wrote discussing the problems in Chairman Genachowski’s speech of last week.  Many NN activists bizarrely think that history proves their argument right, but that is false.  The reality is that history shows that when government attempts to [...]