markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) (02/23/89)
I have to disagree with the very premise from which this thought experiment is raised, based on my own experience with manipulating unknown languages. If you are told the rules to manipulate Chinese symbols with such an accuracy as to fool everyone into thinking that you are competent in the language, then you WILL be -- solely in virtue of the rules and their extraordinary complexity. There is already a name for this process: First Language Accquisition.