Is The Pokemon Porygon An Invasive Species? | Pokemon Investigation 

anyone else surrounded by beauty?

Releasing Porygon into the wild would be the Pokémon equivalent of having bird shaped drones just walking and flying around aimlessly, as they try to fit in with the rest of the environment in a very awkward manner.

What I love about porygon is that it's not just a 3D model, but it's LITERALLY a 3D computer model that's somehow alive and living like a normal pokemon. That's like 3D printing a model of a duck and then calling it a normal animal and I love it.

The old 1996 guidebook says it was invented by Silph Company in 1996(meaning it's only been around a few months during the events of RBY) and it's appearence in the Rocket Game Corner was dubiously legit, probably due to Rocket Insiders smuggling them out

I love the Porygon line. Such a goofy polygonal duck

I think Porygon and Porygon 2 would be safe to have in the wild, but I am concerned about Porygon Z, as it is an unofficial upgrade that seems to be corrupted. Who knows what could happen if it is not monitored

Honestly Porygon is a really underrated pokemon. It's a really cool concept as an artificial pokemon that doubles as a computer program. This even bleeds into its evolution method. It implies that when it and the respective item are turned into data during a trade, it's able to access the data in the Upgrade and Dubious Disk to update itself and I think that's a really cool way to justify the trade evo.

You are not thinking "Pokemon logic" enough. If porygon leaves behind heavy metals and other harmful debris, they are definitely consumed by Poison pokemon.

Porygon was ment to be ironic because it was a sprite that looked like a model and was made because people kept tell satoshi tajiri to make a game with 3d models

As a biology major, I really like this video concept, and I think you should do more. I think Grimer and Muk would be other possible invasive species

Tech waste might not be an issue with Porygon. They don’t really require sustenance, so expelling waste wouldn’t really be all that important for them. That said, predation may cause tech waste. For example, an Arbok manages to catch a Porygon in its jaws. Porygon fights back, but is unable to overcome its attacker, and perishes. Arbok goes to eat the dead Porygon, only to find that it tastes like… not meat, probably like a Voltorb or some other artificial byproduct Pokemon. Arbok decides to go eat that Ratatta over there, leaving the dead-Porygon to break down very, very slowly.

Its important to consider, if pokemon lile Hoopa and their natural power over the world, we to a degree have to reconsider what we deem unnatural

What isn't clear about Porygon is if they are mechanical like robots or are some sort of strange physical code.

The only thing I could see being a issue is other pokemon attempting to eat porygon

Not once in 15+ years did I put two and two together and realize that the butler’s importing Pokemon into the garden lol I hope that’s actually canon because that’d be hilarious!

Here's another question: does Mew contain Porygon DNA?

Porygon should've been used the way Rotom's been used in modern games, wild how gamefreak's neglected my stupid blocky duck.

I love the niche you've carved out of delving into trivia and hypotheticals across pkmn!! Excited for more :)

This is my favourite of the videos you've done, and I'd love more like this. 10/10. The best way to analyze fantasy games, is to take them at face-value and try to determine the "how", rather than explaining why it can't be real. A good example is Ditto; which is able to breed with Magnemite, despite Magnemite being inorganic and sexless, incapable of reproducing. *_Only_* Ditto can create Magnemite eggs. If we're in-universe, how is this mechanism working? I would guess it's because Ditto is still an organic creature who can mimic the physical properties of anything, without literally turning into it. When Ditto sleeps, it turns into something like a rock; it's not *_literally_* a rock, as it's still alive while in this form, it just has the material properties of something very rock-like. This is also related when Ditto breeds-say, with a Zigzagoon. The offspring they produce will inherit some properties from the Ditto parent, including IVs and Nature, so it's actually passing on its DNA. If it completely turned into an exact copy of the other parent, the offspring would just be a clone. Back to Magnemite: I think Ditto's ability as an organic creature that can adopt the properties of artificial material enables it to lay organic eggs composed of artifical matter, given life by the cooperative effort from Magnemite (sharing its energy, perhaps?) Trying to think of explanations for stuff like this is way more fun than just going _"it's fantasy, it doesn't matter"._

The Porygon line and the implications behind their existance makes me wish we got more digitally made mons. There are Porygon, and Castform is heavily implied to be completely man-made, but apart from those, no luck. The next closest are Pokemon made from altering existing lifeforms (Mewtwo, Genesect, Silvally, etc) and Paradox mons, which technically do not exist in our timeline (and may or may not also be cyborgs - as in, based off of existing lifeforms). It's weird, because Porygon wasn't just development into or a failed attempt at creating an artificial Pokemon. It _is_ an artificial Pokemon, capable of eating and laying eggs despite its origins. You would think more companies in the Pokemon world would take advantage of that in the 20+ years of the tech being around. It's like if a group of scientists in the real world constructed a functioning animal purely from stem cells that did not need to use any conventional resources (air, food, etc), and then everyone else goes "meh."

Glad you're asking the questions nobody thought of. You're lonely at the top of creative Pokemon content. Keep it up! Stop dissing my phone tho!

10/10 video, i also pondered upon the existence of wild Porygon

New theory: Backpacker Herman cracked Porygon's code and started creating copies, piracy-style

great video droomish! i loved the part where you went over each of porygons appearances in the mainline pokemon games and decided whether or not it was an invasive species using context clues within said games!! very cool!!!

Great video! Though I don’t think 5:08 is a religious symbol? Iirc that’s just how the Game Corner looks in the Let’s Go games, and Porygon is on the logo as a nod to how the original Kanto games sold Porygon as the top prize for the most coins, like you mentioned earlier. The reason Porygon live next to Celadon is likely because they were secretly discarded by Team Rocket after they had to stop using Pokémon as prizes after it was deemed unethical. I think a few NPCs vaguely imply this, but my memory is foggy. It would also explain why they’re so rare, since they probably only had a few in hand since it was the top prize in the other Kanto games. Can’t wait for the Gen 3 video!

(marine) biology student here, great video! Porygon would probably be considered a naturalized species Never thought much about whether Pokemon are native to their region, makes me question the safari zone pokémon and whether they're native to the region, such as kangaskhan

Do porygon provide any actual caloric content when eaten? Could native pokemon predators potentially hunt and prey upon discarded porygon, consuming something that does not provide them energy which could lead to an issue of predators lowering in numbers because they are using energy to hunt for food that can't actually sustain them?????????? also leading to higher numbers of prey pokemon throwing the whole ecosystem out of whack??????

This is precisely the esoteric, purely fan-conceived conundrum that makes for the perfect longer-form RU-vid videos that I watch the most often and with the most gusto.

I always figured he was more of a digital program hard light energy or something similar. Maybe a chip somewhere but not a whole robot with internal hardware. But hey who knows. The technology in pokemon is incredibly inconsistent with 90s era PCs, teleportation pads, body swap machines and fossil regeneration. (Maybe fossil pokemon would be an invasive species like in Jurassic Park) Another thing i wonder about is it Porygon would attack other Pokémon even without needing to eat. Maybe they'll be like house cats and hunt for fun and sport. Definitely a great video :)

One interesting place you can find wild Pokémon is on Pokémon Island, the setting for Pokémon Snap. This is an island abandoned by humans, where only Pokémon live - and it is strictly prohibited to catch any Pokémon on the island. And yet you can find multiple wild Porygon here, showing off their signature Conversion move (Texture in Japanese - it gives the polygons Porygon is made of a texture). Perhaps they were left behind here by the humans that used to work the abandoned power plant in the Tunnel stage? Yet they have moved away from that area, and make their home in the more natural setting of the River stage.

As a sports fan, I greatly enjoyed this

1:24 That's my phone and it survived a screen-first drop onto tile without even cracking.

This is such an awesome idea! I'd love to see more videos like this. Invasive species are so neat, and it makes me wonder what sort of other Pokemon might pose their own threats to new environments... One of the first that comes to mind for me is Eelektross. While lampreys aren't all invasive, the sea lampreys in the Great Lakes are, and they're pretty nasty. Eelektross's dex entries say that it can pull itself onto land and grab prey, dragging it into the water. It could overpower and deplete both aquatic and nearby terrestrial populations. Entries also state that they're ocean-dwelling. Like sea lampreys, if they're introduced to a smaller lake environment, they could take over super easily, preying on native species. Eelektrik may attach themselves to fish and live off of them until they're mature enough. Being that they're Electric type, human settlements nearby could allow them to evolve earlier and become even more of a problem. The line also gets Levitate, so they don't have any weaknesses! If they were introduced to the Lake of Rage, for example, Eelektross would be really hard to deal with. How they would get there, I'm unsure-- maybe they hitched a ride on a Magikarp with some impressive jumps or brought by a Flying type like Noctowl. The only Pokemon native to the lake are Magikarp and Gyarados, the latter of which possessing a quad-weakness to Electric types and a large body that would be perfect for a bunch of little Eelektriks to stick to. Magikarp is called pathetically weak in multiple dex entries (heartbreaking), so I worry for their ability to fend against the lampreys. I wonder if the fish populations would eventually disappear completely-- what would become of the Eelektrosses? Would they simply die without a food source, or end up hitching a ride on a leaping Magikarp to some other body of water? Lampricides are used to treat sea lamprey-infested waters, so something similar may be used on invasive Eelektross. Poison types with Gastro Acid, such as Victreebel or Swalot, would be useful, as well as Seismitoad, who is Water/Ground, meaning it's immune to Electric and can take advantage of the new Ground weakness. If anyone has other ideas, I'd love to read them! This might not be the place to write an invasive species speculation, but this video was very inspiring. Thanks for making it. :)

Seriously love these types of videos! Hope you make more!

Really enjoying your videos!! They’re really fun. Also I dig the shirt and sleepmask 💤

Great video, would love to see more unanswered poke-questions

In the original Pokemon Snap we see wild Porygon on that live in the River level. They appear to be able to camouflage themselves so that they blend in with the environment and they also appear to phase into the wall. They seem to get along fine and don't seem to be hurting too much.

I truly wish releasing pokemone back into the wild was a way to add that pokemon to the random encounter chance for some route nearby. That would have been neat.

This channel is so fire. So glad I stumbled upon these videos!

The banned anime episode if you ever watch it makes it seem like polygon is common practice in the pokemon world(and probably would have been if not for all the drama around their episode) i feel like roton's use is just them doing what they were going to do what they wanted to do with porygon since in the anime porygon turns itself into different things. They did even have a poryphone in one of their mobile games.

Really enjoyed this video. Funny thing is I actually had a fan evolution of Porygon2 called Porygon Ultra. The "Non-Fungible" Pokemon, and that is definitely bad for the environment with its toxic gas.

As a Gen 3 lover, your channel gives me life

This channel is so brilliant, I'm glad I found it

this is such a great channel

No idea about the S7, but the S8+ was good for a long time.

I'm surprised you didn't mention pokemon snap where they Porygon are camouflaged.

The thing is, lore-wise Porygon can't reproduce on its own. Porygon is basically physically manifested software and furthermore is copy-protected. As a result, not only do Porygon have to be made using a computer, they also have to be compiled from source code by an authorized user, you can't just copy the data of another Porygon... well, not through normal methods, anyway. The one way you _could_ make an unauthorized copy of a Porygon is by having it enter an internal storage device, preferably a SATA compatible HDD or SSD, and then using a drive cloner to copy the raw data of the entire drive to another drive. As a result, I wouldn't even consider Porygon to be a life form, let alone an invasive species, because they technically don't fit the definition of life. In detail: Homeostasis: Maybe? Depends on if a Porygon even has inside conditions to maintain. Organization: I don't like this criteria as it requires all life be cellular in nature, negating the possibility of other structures even if they're still sufficiently organized. But, well... this is another "maybe", because we don't know _what_ a Porygon is actually made of. Metabolism: No. While Porygon uses energy (it has to), it doesn't do so via any molecular process. Growth: Another one I take issue with, mainly because the current definition requires a metabolism as well. Anyway, Porygon is definitely able to grow through its "natural" processes, but this seems to be limited to its evolved forms. Adaptation: Porygon ACES this criteria. There is literally no Pokemon that is more capable of adapting to its environment. Ditto, Eevee, Arceus and Silvaly pale in comparison. Response to stimuli: no issues here. Reproduction: As stated above, Porygon can't reproduce without involving technology. This disqualifies it from both species and life form status, scientifically speaking. Now, keep in mind that this doesn't mean Porygon isn't a Pokemon or an intelligent being, just that it's not a _living_ being. It's kinda like how Data from Star Trek was defined at the end of "Measure of a Man" - Data was ruled as not being a living being, but was still granted personhood as the criteria for living and the criteria for sapience are independent. Of course, as it cannot reproduce on its own and cannot be a species, it can't establish itself as an invasive _species._ At most, it's an invasive sapient technology. Every wild Porygon once belonged to someone else.

I'll also say that porygon wasn't approved for public use, it was stolen by team rocket when they took over silph Co, and the game corner, which is run by team rocket is a pokemon black market

Very interesting video! Definitely make more of these maybe delving into the lore of porygon 2 and maybe z?

This is a fun video. Porygon is like a digimon trying its best to live with Pokémon.

ufff you lost Me at the Samsung line lmao. hey its more innovative than just a simple minor camera upgrade and slapping the next two digit number on the phone with an apple on the back to then charge 500 more than the previous version a month prior

Great content as always Droom 🤟🏻

Correction: Pokemon breed in egg groups, which makes their ecological situation quite frail. So even if Porygon doesn't have any natural prey pokemon to affect, it's affect upon entering a ecosystem can still be attributed to the fact that pokemon that might breed naturally with ditto in the wild, would be affected by Porygon introduction

I like Porygon for proving that not ALL pokemon are genetically related to Mew; it’s entirely synthetic. It’s the key to solving the “which came first, Mew or Arceus?” line of questions.

Porygon going into the grass: *How do you do, fellow Pokemon?*

As a guy that had an S7 for over a decade, i appreciate the fact that SOMEONE else out there agrees with me.

Currently watching this on my Samsung Galaxy S series phone.

"This is an extremely unusual way of determining environmental balance." [laughs in Feebas being determined by the current trendy phrase in Dewford town]

Honeslty what i really want to know is where Corphish are native to. Even in their introduction generation they were described as an invasive species but they have noot been native to any subsequent generation either

I can’t believe you actually got me with that burn. I still use my 7s edge that I got in college

I just left a similar comment on a different video of yours but I’m OBSESSED with questions about ecology in Pokémon. I studied Environmental Communication in grad school, so these questions don’t seem silly to me! The fact that Pokémon included so many details about it being non-replicating is just one example of how they have been thinking about ecological implications from the beginning. And THAT is important because SO MANY people touch this franchise (including kids!) so it encourages people to ask the kind of questions you’re asking not only in regard to the series, but in the real world. Anyway, loved this video. RU-vid plopped you into into my recommendations this morning and I’m very happy they did.

This has nothing to do with almost anything, but I played through Legends Arceus with a Porygon as soon as I learned you could find them in time distortions. The concept of having an equally time-traveled companion joining me in Hisui was too good to pass up. Laventon's notes in the Pokedex were the icing on the cake.

love vids like this. loved it! more plz

Porygon Z being a literal computer virus however would be an intresting version to talk about

i enjoyed watching this video on my samsung galaxy s7 that i found in the woods

Porygon was a lot of fun to play with in Platinum. It’s a travesty that it’s been so hard to obtain up till then.

@1:19 Is this a Dan Nainan reference? Respect.😂

There was a Pokemon episode where the Electrode were an invasive species in a city.

Great Vid!

To be truthful I always though the portals of mirage islands in Oras where confirmed to be hoopas because they look actually like them and also even though the anime isn’t cannon hoopa is able to summon legendary with its rings.

1. Porygon is my absolute favorite, so thank you for this video. 2. Though a side game, Porygon can seemingly be found in the wild in Pokemon Snap, and its interesting that they hide themselves. Why? What predators could it have?

out here asking the real questions

The issue was Note 7, not Galaxy S7.

One of my fave Pokes. It was grind to buy it in the game corner though.

Would be hilarious if when fishing you randomly just pull up a Porygon.

The absolute flex of the Pokemon shirt

I learned a tremendous amount about sports

Only important part is if Porygon complies with part 15 of the FCC rules, which would then mean that a) this Pokemon must not cause harmful interference, and b) this Pokemon must accept any harmful interference received, including interference which may cause undesired operation.

loved my galaxy s7. miss it even

Of all the things I thought might happen today, hearing someone praise the grenade phone is not one of them.

What is porygon made of? Metal, plastic? Maybe its just data floating around and it just appears to be solid

I’ve been playing these games since I was 4 and I’m in college now, i never noticed it was a duck

Porygon still takes up space. It could occupy places where native Pokemon sleep and gather.

jokes aside the galaxy S series of phones is in fact a good set of devices. Maybe not the ones below S10 these days, but it's always been top of the line at time of release. and i think it'd be cool if the S22 were a wild animal :rofl:

Porygon makes more sense to be invading the player smarphone/pokedex than Roton

Let's think about this even broader for a moment- a lifeform made of data? A digital monster? You bet Porygon is an invasive species- to Pokemon itself! What if Porygon is actually a DIGIMON? Maybe everyone's been getting the name wrong from the start! Porygon? More like Porymon!

I subscribed because of the porygon shirt 🔥

droomish yet another banger, how do you do it?? anyway can you please send me your porygon shirt? thanks

tbh Porygon is a missed chance for the generic public brand Poképhone, like Cyclizar is for transportation.

Yoo did u see the new Porygon mat on the Pokemon center website

as someone on a s5 I can say s7 is a decent upgrade and would be very welcome.

What people should be worried is they manage to find a way to upgrade themselves on their own without trading. Then all it takes is for some asshole to burn a bunch of Dubious Discs and scatter it around.

Ditto can even breed with a creature implicitly stated to be designed as unduplicatable. That's kind of disturbing.

I dont think porygon is bad as a pokedex entry have stated that it has been helping with tightening cyber security. It is also a pokemon that can adapt to the situation, being able to trace or download. It also learns recycle so porygon is good for nature in some ways. After pikachu shot the missle in a certain episode... nearly wiped out all of the porygons, justice for porygon.

Galaxy S7 phones didn’t have any issues whatsoever. It was the Note 7 that blew up, which is an entirely different line of phones from Samsung.

Much less electromagnetic interference than Magnemite and Voltorb since they're normal type

I didn't really think about it till now, but why haven't they made more Porygon esc. Pokemon? I get that PorygonZ is considered the "failure", but Mewtwo was beyond a succes and other artificial Pokémon have been made. Why not make more/different digital Pokémon?

It may have copy protection but that doesn't mean much just ask game devs who use denuvo. If they can create an artificial clone of Mew I'm sure they can crack some pokeDRM. It also doesn't surprise me that it's found in the game corner which is run by team rocket.

im truly surrounded by beauty

porygon arent robots or computers; theyre just programs. Theyre virtual reality. Computer graphics that can exist autonomously from the computer. Digimon but they dont need a digivice. Idk; maybe they have a hologram bee like in red dwarf projecting them?