Actual recorded dolphin squeaks could be spliced together to make sentences. After the dolphin learned your system of associations between real things and squeaks, you could understand him by looking up the squeaks he makes on your chart of associations. Imagine a dolphin with an electric wheel chair he could steer with his nose. He could have a soggy wetsuit to protect his skin. You could make him glasses to help his vision in air.
Thought is a type of feedback loop.
When you think, you are monitoring the amount of connections between the subject idea and all your other ideas. Because unused brain cells and their dendrites die if they are not used, the remaining connections can be said to be tuned by the environment. I once suggested people will some day have houses as big as the world trade center- only to be laughed at. However, such things can be built by automation. A cell is far more complex.