Or to alt, as the Flying Spaghetti Monster intended. Earlier keyboards had ctrl next to the space, which is why it's such a used modifier key (thumb is stronger than pinky, and is quite easy to use both left and right keys).
Not that I personally do that, I'm too used to ctrl mapped to caps lock. If I could go back in time to before I started using emacs though... I would learn emacs with vim bindings.
As a more general recommendation, getting used to both right and left control (whatever it's mapped to) is a huge ergonomic improvement. When you need to use Ctrl with a key in the left side of the keyboard, use right ctrl, and left ctrl when using a key in the right side. This avoid having to crumple your hand to reach, eg., ctrl+a.
