But even looking at it in an information-theoretic way, what is being stated is that the instruction set is far more powerful than the binary analogy Kurzweil is using. The instruction I give: "Cure Cancer" has 11 bytes. But that instruction implies a ridiculously complicated set of sequences that we haven't figured out yet.
In this situation, look at the genome as the instruction set for protein construction and folding, an ongoing problem in research we have just begun to investigate. The information contained in the genome is combinatorially descriptive and therefore not as simple as made out to be, if you define information as the amount of "surprise" in the outcome.
I don't think it can be compared to instructions. More like just the startup conditions, like a rom or something. All analogies that compare computers to biological things are terrible. Mine is as much so as any other.
In this situation, look at the genome as the instruction set for protein construction and folding, an ongoing problem in research we have just begun to investigate. The information contained in the genome is combinatorially descriptive and therefore not as simple as made out to be, if you define information as the amount of "surprise" in the outcome.