100 Plus

Sonia Arrison (born September 8, 1972) is an American author of books and articles relating to the impact of technology on human life,Silicon Valley launches another bid to 'hack' aging, cheat death
, '' San Jose Mercury News'' (September 14, 2014). including national bestseller ''100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith'', a book on research into life extension.Ariana Eunjung Cha,
Tech Titans' Latest Project: Defy Death
, ''The Washington Post'' (Apr 4, 2015).The Bookworm Sez: “100+: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith” by Sonia Arrison
, ''Health Care Report (Pittsburgh)'' (March 31, 2012).

Early life and career

Born in Alberta, Canada to a pharmacist mother and a chemical engineer father, Arrison studied political science at the University of Calgary in the mid-1990s.Julia Prodis Sulek,
For Sonia Arrison, longer living through science is inevitable, so we might as well prepare for it
, ''Bay Area Scene'' (April 8, 2011). She became interested in the political impact of the internet, which eventually led to her becoming director of technology studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a libertarian think tank headquartered in San Francisco, in the early 2000s.

Activism

In 2000, Arrison published a column in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' opposing San Francisco's adoption of an "open access" policy for cable operators. She also criticized San Francisco's 2006 decision to provide free wireless telecommunications access throughout the city, writing that " city administration that cannot fix our streets, run an effective public transport system, address the tragedy of the homeless and reduce taxes has no business monopolizing the Internet." In 2007, Arrison described the transparency in pledge and donation amounts to be an important open-source element of moneybomb success, stating that " ose revelations stand in direct contrast to traditional campaigns, which tend to be silent and proprietary about who is donating." Arrison was also Chairman of the Board of Governors of Lead21, through which she met her husband, Aydin Senkut, who was "one of Google's first employees".Ashlee Vacne,
Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday
, ''The New York Times'' (June 12, 2010).Singularity University Founders page

Longevity research and ''100 Plus''

Arrison was an Associate Founder of Singularity University. In a 2010 ''New York Times'' interview, she described her motivation for writing ''100 Plus'', which was then a work in progress, and which was described along with Singularity University as "her attempts to ready people for the inevitable". "One day we will wake up and say, 'Wow, we can regenerate a new liver'", Ms. Arrison says. "It will happen so fast, and the role of Singularity University is to prepare people in advance". ''100 Plus'' "outlines changes that people can expect as life expectancies increase, like 20-year marriages with sunset clauses".

''100 Plus'' was published in 2011, with a foreword by Peter Thiel, a longtime friend whom Arrison had introduced to leading life extension researchers. Arrison was a speaker at the October 2011 Singularity Summit in New York, and appeared as a guest on '' Stossel'' on December 22, 2011. In a 2012 ''CBS News'' interview, Arrison stated that she was inspired to write ''100 Plus'' after viewing an episode of the U.S. reality TV series, ''The Swan'', in which participants were overjoyed to receive a makeover involving relatively minor plastic surgery procedures. Arrison stated that this got her to thinking about the possible societal changes accompanying the much more substantial changes becoming possible through new medical advances.Jeff Glor,
Could babies born today live to 150?
, ''CBS News'' (February 9, 2012).

Another interview noted that while critics worry that increased longevity will spur overpopulation, "Aubrey de Grey and Sonia Arrison, two leading advocates of life extension and advisers to the Palo Alto Prize, brush these concerns aside". The piece continues, "Arrison notes that the rate of global population expansion is slowing", but "claims that increasing the healthy life span, by extending the sweet spot of adulthood that combines vigor with the wisdom of experience, will give the world's best minds more time to innovate solutions to humanity's problems".

Publications

* With Thomas Hazlett, ''Telecrisis: How Regulation Stifles High-Speed Internet Access'', San Francisco, Calif: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 2003. .
* ''100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith'' (Basic Books, 2011),
*
Will You Still Love Me When I’m 164?
, ''Time'' (September 18, 2013).

References

External links

Official website

Lifeboat Foundation biography of Sonia Arrison
* Nick Schulz,
Bioengineering Methuselah: Human beings living to be 150? And you thought Social Security and Medicare were in trouble now
, ''Wall Street Journal'' (August 31, 2011)
*
Sonia Arrison’s 100 Plus: Book Review
, ''h+ Magazine'' (October 26, 2011)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arrison, Sonia
American non-fiction writers
Living people
American libertarians
Life extensionists
1972 births
American women non-fiction writers
21st-century American women writers