[Theory] Are Pokemon as intelligent as humans, or animals?

[The Void]

Pokemon certainly act as animals -- they cry, they eat, etc. But they act independently sometimes. I'm wondering: Do Pokemon act on mere instinct like animals do, or do they think and act like humans as well? How about legendary Pokemon?

My guess would be that when out in the wild, Pokemon act primarily on the basic instinct to survive but with a stronger sense of instinct and emotion than most animals. However, once captured by a Pokeball, their instinct to survive is changed to the instinct to obey their trainer, as if they were "instantly trained". There are many different, complicated factors of course, like how much they like their trainer, how well their trainer is treating them, the type of Pokemon, telepathy, etc.

Thoughts?

 

[Khoshi]

Well, we definitely had a show of Pokemon intelligence with the appearance of that Slowking in the second movie having the ability to make conversation. That was unfortunately a one time only event. I think that most ordinary Pokemon use animal instinct to live, seeing as Pokemon are based on animals, though when caught and adapting to being with their trainer, they learn a more human ways of living, if that makes sense.

As for Legendary Pokemon, I personally think that they're higher up than normal Pokemon, so they have more intelligence, and we already know that most Legendary Pokemon have the ability to use telepathy.

 

[MacEnhizer]

My cannon is that pokemon are sorted into four categories based on their abilities to use logic and speak languages.

The first category would be for pokemon like rattata and pidgy, where they essentially have the intelligence of dogs. They can be trained to use certain commands and have fairly good instincts, but they are fairly simple-minded and act mostly on instinct unless trained.

The second category would be (in my mind) for pokemon such as the starters in their lowest forms and pokemon like machop, where they have more complex communication between themselves and show basic logic capabilities, like some species of monkeys and apes. They would also have the ability to learn how to communicate with other species to a certain extent, and even learn how to properly use some words in whatever human language their trainer speaks.

The third category would be for mostly evolved pokemon, where they have about the same mental capacities as adult humans. They can speak multiple languages if they want to, and can use logic to make decisions on their own. In this case trainers would be more like coaches in sports.

The fourth category is reserved for (some) legendaries and psychic pokemon, where they base most of their thought processes on logic and have limited instincts or emotional responces. Kind of like computers, or Vulcans. I say SOME legendaries because I think that some of them are merely powerful beasts, such as the bird trio.

 

[Hoenn_Waters]

Pokemon are indeed smart, that's why humans train them to prevent them from overshadowing humans. This act of cruelty is one of the things I hate about the game

 

[Plushie Ninja]

I would say that yes, pokemon have intelligence, depending on their species, evolutionary state etc. Pokemon can learn, depending on the environment they are raised in, proper conditions and all, and I can most definitely agree with MacEnhizer's headcanon about pokemon intelligence, when regarding species.
I like to believe that pokemon start out life based on instinct, and grow and adapt to their environment as time goes on. Should they evolve, their understanding of the environment, its workings, how to interact with it evolves as well. Those that have trainers will most certainly pick up a few things from them should they care to as they are being guided.

 

[MckinkyMcormic]

www .youtube.com/watch?v=PjnPyGFYKrI (remove the space)

the game theorists did a great video on this. their take is that based on the books in Canalave as a hint saying that pokemon were once humans/humans were once pokemon, and eventually became separate entities. this obvious transition means that many of the pokemon have the capacity are as, if not more, intelligent than humans.

 

[Aeroblast]

It really varies. Pokemon like Alakazam would be much smarter than a Magikarp, for instance.

 

[Hamj]

Something along the lines of
Humans>Pokemon>Animals>Ash Ketchum

 

[SmashBrony]

I feel that it depends on each individual species...

Many, such as Arcanine, Pidgeot, Ariados, etc., would be as smart a their real word animal
counter part.

Some, like Mewtwo, act more like humans.

In pokedex entries, Lapras is said to be intelligent enough to understand every word
a human says while Alazakam & Metagross are said to be as intelligent as supercomputers,
if I remember correctly.

@ Hamj:
Are you sure it's not like this?:
Humans>Pokemons>Animals>Poop>Ash Ketchum

 

[Flow So Gorgeous]

I think in general, Pokemon are very intelligent. Any being that can comprehend human speech I would say is intelligent, but Pokemon, even those that are captured right out of the wild, know the human term for their moves and perform them on command. Maybe someone can chalk that up to game mechanics, but it has to count for something.

 

[Universe]

I've always felt that Pokemon have the same intelligence capability as human beings.

We've had a various display of complex emotion, conversation-making, and telepathy out of many different Pokemon. Team Rocket's Meowth is probably the biggest display of Pokemon intelligence in the entire series. He learned how to speak 'human language' all on his very own and mastered it, becoming a bi-lingual Pokemon capable of speaking to both worlds. He doesn't only speak with both humans and Pokemon, but he perfectly understands everything he's hearing and can speak back with flawless cognition.

He makes conversation without error, as though you're speaking to a smaller squeakier human. It's why most of us end up forgetting that Meowth is a Pokemon.. because he blends in so well with Jessie and James. XD

And then of course we've had similar situations, although it involved telepathy instead : Jirachi, Mewtwo, Shaymin, Zorua, Diancie, etc. They all are in the same boat as Meowth, but speak with their minds instead of their mouths. But even Pokemon who don't speak 'human language' have showed the ability to perfectly understand what they're hearing and be able to respond appropriately - as if they were human.

Animals learn social cues from their surrounding beings and can feel emotion, but this kind of high-level cognition doesn't exist with most animals. Pokemon don't just get their cues off of specific words or implications, they understand full and complete sentences, ideas, meanings, and even respond emotionally as a human would.

I think it's safe to say they're very intelligent.

 

[pippitha]

I think they're all intelligent. But they don't need to communicate or act like humans when they live out in the wild, so they don't show it until they are captured. Even meowth learned to speak human before he was Team Rocket's pokemon.

 

[StarlightCrux]

I think it depends based on the Pokemon in question, for example, a Slowpoke is more recognised for being close to a dog in terms of intelligence.

Aside from that, I'm under the consensus that Pokemon are generally as smart as humans, but unfortunately, I feel like this is one aspect that gets overshadowed by almost every other aspect in the world itself, mainly because I think it's so confused in what it wants to say at times.

Take how Officer Jenny feels about Pokemon as a whole in terms of speech. She outright states that "Pokemon can't understand human speech", despite the fact that we have seen Ash's Pikachu reacting to one of the characters saying that the boat's rudder had become broken in the second movie, Meowth being able to speak human language, and the fact that the battle system revolves around Pokemon reacting to your commands without the training that an animal would have in real life.

Not only that, we also have Pokemon doing things that animals would never do in real life, for example, having Psyduck operate a camera, having Mr. Mime as a maid, and the existence of the Squirtle squad with those glasses. The three examples as said before don't seem to have come from hours or days of training to teach (heck, you can teach a dog to drive a car if you train it long and hard enough), it just looks like it comes naturally to them.

Overall, I say that yes, I think that Pokemon are as smart as humans, as they're shown to have the potential to speak like them, and are shown to have the emotional complexity of one as well, but again, I'll say that this aspect isn't well explored in the universe itself. I could talk about this until the Miltanks come home, but I'll just end it here to stop my reply turning into even more of a filibuster.