h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ended up in a small town in South Africa. Plettenburg Bay. Internet access, yes. Speed, no.
I've got the bandwidth bluuuueees, oh yeah, i've got 'em.
Actually, I live in South Africa, so ending up isn't the right phrase... I think that this business of Life is all mixed up.
Why do we want to know the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. Animals don't. And they're happy. (except the extinct ones)
At least the dolphins are happy, anyway.
If we're going to talk about life, it's probably best to start at the beginning. (now what is that?)
How about something really, really tiny? An amoeba, maybe.
What does an amoeba know about life? How do I know what an amoeba knows about life?
Silly little things, amoeba's, really. Don't do much. Just, sort of, multiply. At least there are no mid-life crises'. (That, at least, is what one told me. Can't trust 'em you know!)
Still, they do store an impressive 3GB of data in their DNA. Woaaah!
Now that's what I call data compression.
3GB of instructions, encoded into that tiny little thing.

I made an experiment. Made a little proggie that pumps out random data. Thought maybe I could get a simple 'computer generated' amoeba.
Tried to run a few of the raw files. (saved them as .exe) No can do. My PC just won't do it. Damn thing keeps crashing...
I'd like to see anyone who can compile a 3GB chunk of random ASCII.(with the compiler of your choice, mind you) How long would it take to get 3GB of meaningful instructions?
Our little proggie would of course be self-healing, self-replicating and the works.
Besides, what does the computer represent? The Earth? The Organic Soup? Mmm.
And how does 42 fit in with all this? Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Deep thought doesn't seem to help much.
Perhaps we could get some monkeys to do it? They might be more efficient...