Comment by hackinthebochs
11 hours ago
This just alters the thought experiment. What the thought experiment offers is a book of opaque rules, just instructions on how to transform symbols into more symbols without any concern for their meaning. What you're offering is a translation dictionary, what does it mean when one encounters X symbol. You're giving him a book on learning Chinese.
Language is infinitely generative though so I don't understand how you can write down a finite list of rules in a book in the first place.
The thought experiment is fundamentally nonsensical.