From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri May 28 1999 - 02:05:29 MDT
As you can see from my new .signature, I have now installed BeOS on my
machine. I am also typing this message on a Dvorak keyboard. In the
last election, I voted Libertarian where possible. I'm a
Singularitarian, and thus by extension a transhumanist, a
science-fiction fan, and a novelty-seeker. Coincidence? I think not.
For some people, There Is A Better Way.
Let us consider: Is someone running MacOS or Linux or BeOS, even though
95% of the planet uses Windows, more likely to use the Dvorak keyboard,
even though 95% of the planet uses QWERTY? Is someone who votes
Libertarian more likely to be a transhumanist? I have no hard
statistics on the subject, but I suspect that there is considerable
overlap between the groups.
I'd like to list the following items for a Better Way Award. The Better
Way Awards are given to Ways (1) that inspire fanatic devotion in their
users and (2) that only a minority use - and, of course, are vastly
Better than the alternatives.
Vastly Better Way Awards:
BeOS: There Is A Better Operating System.
Linux/OpenSource: There Is A Better Development Strategy.
Dvorak: There Is A Better Keyboard.
Libertarianism: There Is A Better Political Party.
Design Patterns: There Is A Better Design Method.
Science Fiction: There Is A Better Literature.
Singularity/>H: There Is A Better Goal.
Cryonics: There Is A Better Survival Strategy.
Nanotechnology: There Is A Better Material World.
Better Way Awards (category 1):
XML: There Is A Better Data Format.
PGP/RSA: There Is A Better Cryptographic Cipher.
Godel Escher Bach: There Is A Better Book.
Software Reuse: There Is A Better Development Strategy.
Object-Orientation:There Is A Better Programming Paradigm.
Better Way Awards (category 2):
arXiv/cogprints: There Is A Better Scientific Paper Repository.
OnSale's atCost: There Is A Better (and Vastly Cheaper) Seller.
Evolution. Psych: There Is A Better Psychology.
Credit Unions: There Is A Better Bank.
IBM Solutions: There Is A Better Software Search Engine.
Good Drug Guide: There Is A Better Neurology.
Collaborative Filtering: T.I.A.B. Way of Finding Things.
Rutan's Rotor: There Is A Better Spaceship.
Australia: There Is A Better Country. (Planning to move someday...)
Ask Jeeves: There Is A Better Search-Engine Interface.
Slightly Better Way Awards:
USA: There Is A Better Country.
Python: There Is A Better Programming Language.
Java: There Is A Better Programming Language.
Scheme: There Is A Better Programming Language.
Eiffel: There Is A Better Programming Language.
User Friendly: There Is A Better Comic Strip.
Extropians: There Was A Better Mailing List (pre-1998 only).
What are *your* Better Ways?
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
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