The logical error is that it's confusing a part with the whole. Clearly a single neuron in your brain does not understand English. Yet no one disputes that yo

The logical error is that it's confusing a part with the whole. Clearly a single neuron in your brain does not understand English. Yet no one disputes that you understand English. The non-chinese-speaker is just a component of the ChineseRoom system, that it doesn't understand Chinese is no more remarkable than a single neuron of yours not understanding English. It doesn't say anything about the overall system understanding Chinese or not. I think it appeals to people with a more superficial understanding of computing that under appreciates the fact that instructions on paper processed by a universal circuit (or by a human emulating one) are morally equivalent to hardwired logic (if slower). So they disregard the contribution of the room, and focus on the fact that the meat-bot inside doesn't understand Chinese so the room must not either.