Human Intelligence, Foolishness, and Hubris Theme Analysis

The Sirens of Titan is a satirical novel, and one of the main targets of its derision is the hubris of humanity’s faith in our own intelligence. Hubris refers to excessive pride that in turn leads to the downward turn of a person’s fortune. Throughout the novel, foolish people and ideas are falsely believed to be intelligent. This is closely connected to the novel’s exploration of humanity’s search for meaning, as well as the consequences (and causes) of inequality. People want to believe that intelligent beings are in control, and this leads to (perhaps false) belief in both God and meritocracy. The revelation that the Tralfamadorians have shaped human history to their own ends suggests that more intelligent beings have been in control the whole time. However, an ironic twist emerges in the form of the fact that the message the Tralfamadorians sent Salo on a mission to deliver—and thus the whole reason that human civilization exists—says nothing more than “Greetings.” This message—though not exactly foolish—is not particularly wise, complex, or ingenious, either. It is yet another example of what the novel terms the “idiotically simple,” suggesting that it the habit of assigning greater complexity to simple or foolish matters is a trait not limited to humans. 

One of the main messages of the novel is that while it is commonly assumed that more intelligence leads to greater success, the opposite is actually true. This is explored through the example of Noel and Malachi Constant, who are the most successful businessmen in the U.S. despite the fact that they know nothing about business. Noel made his fortune essentially at random, and his investment strategy is so “idiotically simple” that many people actually can’t understand it. They falsely believe that is complicated because of their faith in meritocracy, whereas in reality, Noel is unintelligent and doesn’t really understand business. The same is true of Malachi, who, whenever people ask him for investment advice, tells them to buy stock in an entirely fictional company. As the narrator explains, “what little charm the Constants had evaporated the instant they pretended that their successes depended on knowing their elbows from third base.” The Constants may be the richest people in the country, but this is not thanks to their own intelligence.

Indeed, the novel not only suggests that there is no link between intelligence and success—it also indicates that ignorance might even be more conducive to success. This emerges in the story of the origin of Noel’s fortune. The fact that he didn’t understand why he was becoming rich allowed him to keep pursuing the same uninformed investment strategy, which in turn meant that he continued making money.

The idea that ignorance can be necessary to success is also explored through the character of Boaz, one of the commanders of the Martian Army. Boaz has a very powerful position, but is not an intelligent, curious, or critical person, and the narrator explicitly links these two aspects of his character: “He was too good a soldier to go around asking questions, trying to round out his knowledge. A soldier’s knowledge wasn’t supposed to be round.” This quotation links the novel’s exploration of intelligence to its depiction of free will versus external control: Boaz restricts his own intelligence in order to blindly follow orders, and this makes him a successful soldier.

This is similar to Salo, who—despite being vastly more intelligent than any of the human characters—nonetheless obeys the commands of others to an almost fanatical degree. As the narrator explains, “Of all the orders Salo received before taking off from Tralfamadore, the one that was given the most importance was that he was not, under any circumstances, to open the message along the way. This order was so emphasized that it became the very core of the little Tralfamadorian messenger’s being.” Like Boaz, Salo does not possess a natural sense of curiosity. So despite going on a multi-millennial mission to deliver the message and getting stranded for 200,000 years during it, he is never once tempted to actually find out what the message is.

What appears to link Boaz and Salo’s success and ignorance is the fact that, by deliberately preserving their own ignorance in order to follow orders, they never discover that there is actually no intelligent plan behind their respective missions at all. In both cases, the supposed greater intelligence that (directly or indirectly) gives them orders is the Tralfamadorians trying to get their message delivered to the other side of the universe. Yet at the end of the novel, it is revealed that all this message contains is the word “Greetings.” The seemingly intelligent plot behind everything that happens in the novel is actually, like Noel Constant’s investment strategy, “idiotically simple.”

In contrast to the willingly ignorant Noel, Malachi, Boaz, and Salo, Rumfoord becomes intoxicated with his own intelligence, and thus becomes a warning about hubris. Having acquired the ability to travel through space with his dog, Kazak, through the chrono-synclastic infundibulum, Rumfoord boasts of having learned everything that will happen in both the past and future. While his belief in his own prophetic powers is not false, Rumfoord still fails to realize that a sunspot will eventually interrupt his journey through space and shoot him into oblivion. Indeed, the fact that Rumfoord is sent hurtling through space by a sunspot links his fate to a classical tale of hubris: the story of Icarus, who gains the ability to fly but dies after his wax wings melt when he flies too close to the sun. Like Icarus, Rumfoord acquires a special ability but then become overconfident in this ability, and this eventually leads to his downfall. In this sense, the novel suggest that it is better to always remain aware of one’s own stupidity, rather than (falsely) believe in one’s intelligence.