Dear friends,
it has been a remarkable month. In just two weeks I collected all the money I needed, with pledges that varied from as little as $5 to as much as $100! I received dozens of support messages, emails, links, videos, and news stories from all around the globe. A publishing company showed interest in distributing the book once it comes out, and I even received some sketches for the T-Shirt competition. 

It may not sound like much, but the fact that so many people placed their trust in me sure gave a lot of confidence. As a first-time author, I felt really honored to receive such warm support. It all seemed to be going well. In fact, too well.

Last week I received a message from Amazon, saying that the federal law regarding tax information was changed, and that I had to provide some additional info to further verify my account (a very good friend of mine who lives in the U.S. has offered to use his, since Amazon only accepts U.S. bank accounts). We did give the correct information, but for some unspecified reason Amazon was unable to verify it. We double checked, and opened up another support request. Too late: Amazon sent a message to kickstarter saying they froze the account. That means that all pledges are invalid, and I should cancel the project. Of course, none of you is loosing any money, because no money is leaving any bank account.

The good news is that I have no intention of canceling the book. In fact, I have been quite prolific these past three weeks: I met some very interesting people, and wrote more than 20 pages of the book. So far, it's looking pretty good! Of course, when I first read the news from Amazon I was a bit disheartened, but I quickly regained my strength, as I thought: if I let myself down for such little things, how can I expect to show some resilience?

Given the situation, I have no choice but to cancel this kickstarter campaign, and open a new one on IndieGoGo. It works just like kickstarter, but it uses PayPal and direct credit card payment, instead. So, it has none of the restrictions imposed by Amazon, and everything should run smoothly.

Here's the link to the new campaign:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Robots-will-steal-your-job-but-thats-OK?a=292999

Please, follow the link and pledge again (you will only pay once of course, this project on kickstarter is cancelled).

I apologise for the inconvenience, thank you again for everything, I will keep you posted on the blog.

The project is officially funded!

After only 2 weeks, 100% of the goal was reached, summing it up to $1,000. Is it just a coincidence that the backer to reach the perfect 100% goal was exactly the 42nd on the list?

I think not.

We all knew what the answer would have been. ;)

The goal is reached, but there's not reason to stop. The topic presented is more important than the book itself or even myself: share it with your friends, post it to your blog, facebook, twitter, google+, if you know somebody who manages a high-traffic website, ask them to feature it.

93% of the goal and still 21 days to go! I can't thank you enough for the trust and the amazing suggestions you gave me.

Today I'm launching the design contest, with the following rules:

• all designs must be submitted before the end of the project funding to the following address tshirts@robotswillstealyourjob.com (if a confirmation reply does not arrive, re-send the email)
• you may submit however many design you like
• by submitting your design, you give me explicit permission to use it for any purpose
• make them fun and/or smart, be creative! 

The winner will receive:

• a free t-shirt, regardless of the fact they're a backer or not
• a mention on the credits page of the website

Have fun!

Hey guys,
it's one day in, and already 12 people backed to project, reaching up to 25% of the goal, what a great response! 

Thank you for the trust and the encouragement you are giving me, I'm reading many books on a variety of topics, to cover the whole spectrum of the book, which is quite large. Not just computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, but also economics, cultural anthropology, as well as views from public intellectuals and grassroots movements.

I'll gather as much material as possible over the next two months, although I already started writing a few pages and created the general structure of the book. Next, I'll interview experts on the fields I mentioned above, to get a second perspective and to challenge the assumptions I might have made.

I'll leave you with a video that just came out of a robot balancing a bike (it's quite impressive).

Remember to share this project with your friends on facebook and twitter, if we gain momentum we can get this topic more and more in the public discourse.

Live long and prosper  \\//,