The only way to improve the chances for finding winners is to keep all the choices open and try them all.
Freeman DysonPlasma seems to have the kinds of properties one would like for life. It's somewhat like liquid water--unpredictable and thus able to behave in an enormously complex fashion. It could probably carry as much information as DNA does. It has at least the potential for organizing itself in interesting ways.
Freeman DysonThe technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple.
Freeman Dyson