Thread: Level of Technology, and Diverging Branches of Science

I've been wondering about this for some time, what the actual levels of technological development are in the different mediums, incarnations, and interpretations across the series.

It seems like things would have to diverge, and some other branch of science would suffer. In the manga "The Electric Tale of Pikachu," for example, medicine seems to be significantly advanced, along with miniaturized and hyperspecialized computers (the Pokedex). In the anime, the technology level is about the same as ours.

What do you think?

Well, actually within the series as a whole, they are way more technologically advanced than we are. I'm not familiar with the manga so I can't say anything about that, but in the games theres tons of things that are more advanced than what we have. The PCs the most primary example. With in the anime, theres a lot that is more advanced that us. The difference is that they can live in balance with the technology. In our world, we depend on technology, we always keep our phones with us. Use the computer a lot. But in Pokemon, they seem to have it balanced so even though that kind of stuff exists, they can live with it and not have it take over their lives or they can completely live without it.

As for medicine though, you're right. Even in the anime and games, thats much more advanced than it is for us. We don't have things that we can spray on ourselves or animals that immediately cures them of paralysis or burns or awaken them, etc.

Well when it comes to the Pokemon games, I always got this impression that a lot of the regions were about 10 or 20 years ahead of our science.
The "Pokedex" in the old 90's pokemon games was like the concept of the "Black Berry" before the device ever existed. With the most latest games though, they seem to take technology that we understand and use every day in the real world, and use it in the pokemon games but minorly enhanced for fictional purposes.
For instance, the C-Gear, it makes perfect sense to our current technology when we are in a wi-fi hot spot, but in the video games fictional perspective, there are not hot spots, your C-Gear just connects to wi-fi all the time, which generally is how most of our phones work lately.
I'd say that we have almost completely caught up with pokemon fictional technology. A lot of the medicine and such has yet to be accomplished but, a lot of it seems almost in our grasp.
So yeah 10-20 years difference I'd say when comparing technologies from pokemon to real world. We're 10-20 years behind.

Does anyone amaze about being able to access your PC from any Pokémon center, since the very beginning?

While remote acess is a rather old concept, I see the idea of accessing a 10-years-old kid's home PC from faraway as a very big thing for 1996. It became normal last 5 years, at best.

Ooh, I wonder if they've quantized GR...!

Lol, nerdiness aside, It seems a bit more advanced with pokeballs and whatnot.

I agree that the Pokémon world is much more advanced than our own. Think about it. They can transfer living organisms into data and allow that data to be stored and accessed anywhere. In our world that would probably be the most momentous discovery ever.

My guess is it's either near-Singularity or post-Singularity. Porygon is the closest thing the series has to a full-blown AI (self-aware AI is a hallmark of the Singularity), but the genetic engineering is light-years beyond ours (i.e., Mewtwo). In fact, I tied Poke' Balls into the Singularity here: http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f280/science-pokamon-good-catch-exploring-technology-behind-poka-balls-114940/index2.html#post3384150

Originally Posted by Magmarashi

I agree that the Pokémon world is much more advanced than our own. Think about it. They can transfer living organisms into data and allow that data to be stored and accessed anywhere. In our world that would probably be the most momentous discovery ever.

At the same time, though, there's also that pokemon are said to be different in that regard from other animals. If there were animals in this world that could undergo such a matter transformation, we could very well have done the same thing ages ago. But since there aren't, it's impossible to say.

Originally Posted by Blackjack Gabbiani

At the same time, though, there's also that pokemon are said to be different in that regard from other animals. If there were animals in this world that could undergo such a matter transformation, we could very well have done the same thing ages ago. But since there aren't, it's impossible to say.

All Pokémon are still living organisms, and living organisms are not generally constructed from data. Thus, feats like Pokéballs and PCs are still worth noting because of the difficulty of transforming something into energy and data and then having the organism available to use wherever needed. It is the equivalent of teleportation in our world. And everyone would agree that teleportation would be a terrific accomplishment.

Also, were you suggesting that Pokémon are not made up of DNA and proteins like other animals? Then of what would they be constituted?

It's a mix. In some ways, they're on par, in other ways, more advanced, and in other ways far behind.

Advanced:
Medical technology
Matter transportation
Converting life into data
Water-evaporating bombs
Massive drill castles
Airships (animé)
Vs. Seeker
Cloning

On par:
Miniaturized computers
Trucking
Trains
Luxury liners
Freighters
Internet
Video Phones (animé)
Gunpowder/explosives
Power generation
Rail-line Technology

Behind:
Non-pedestrian roads
Personal automobiles
Industrial clean-up (PokéSpe)
Rail/road networks (on par in Unova)

@Sith Droideka: I believe you should move the rail networks (not roads, though) to the on par section of your chart because of the bullet train in Goldenrod/Saffron and the Subway system in Isshu. Both of these are currently used technologies, especially the bullet train which presumably is sped up with magnets.