The author posits that it wasn't stupidity that killed McCandless for eating a plant not known to be toxic, but rather ignorance.
However the reason he (and the rest of us) were ignorant of the danger of the potato seed is that the potato seed isn't dangerous to anyone except those in a severe caloric deficit and still undergoing physical exertion.
In other words he applied knowledge gained in one situation (normal persons eating potato seed) to a situation far outside of the experiments that seemed to show no issues with potato seed.
Call it ignorance instead of stupidity if you want, but he's still just as dead (and apparently wouldn't have died had he maintained something other than a caloric deficit which must have eventually led to his death anyways).
I'll go further and state that the only reason this ignorance was dangerous to him was because he stupidly put himself in a situation where it could be. Everyone should know that the wilderness can be dangerous for countless reasons, that isn't really something you can be ignorant of. Not making an effort to eliminate ignorance before putting yourself in the path of danger is stupid.
Put it this way, scuba diving is dangerous, everybody knows that. Furthermore, I am ignorant about diving gases and equipment; that stuff simply isn't something I know much about. This ignorance is not dangerous to me, because I have no intention of diving. If I did intend on diving, I would have to be stupid to not rectify my ignorance first.
I'm not sure you read the article. He did make an effort to reduce his ignorance. He was knowledgable on what was and was not edible. He had the same knowledge that everyone else had, prior to the investigation of his death. It is only after investigating his death that we know that eating those seeds, while in extreme caloric deficit, is dangerous.
The point is that being in a situation where eating those seeds could be dangerous in the first place was the result of stupidity.
"After subsisting for three months on a marginal diet of squirrels, porcupines, small birds, mushrooms, roots, and berries, he’d run up a huge caloric deficit and was teetering on the brink. By adding potato seeds to the menu, he apparently made the mistake that took him down. After July 30th, his physical condition went to hell, and three weeks later he was dead."
Stupidly, he remained ignorant. That ignorance resulted in a weakened state, which allowed the seeds to be dangerous.
He "remained" just as ignorant as the rest of us. You're still implying that if he had done more research, he could have found out that those seeds, in his condition, could kill him. He could not have.
Yes, he took a risk. But I don't think it's a significantly different risk from other risky activities young men in their early 20s do, ranging from unusual sports to the military.
He was starving even without the seeds (it was only because he was starving already that the seeds did him in) because he did not actually know how to survive in the wild. Neither do I, but I am smart enough to know that and not attempt living in the wild.
What the article didn't touch on, is that the problem he faced was crossing out of the river, after the river rose - he couldn't simply ford across it, as he had done getting there.
"Oh well", he said, "I'll just hang back here". His original plan was to travel through Alaska - which is a weird thing to want to do, by foot, in anything but the wintertime - Alaska turns into a giant swamp. It's one of the reasons why locals thought McCandles a little dim.
What could have saved him, was this: there was an old cable basket system a little ways up river that he could have used to cross. He never knew about it. It seems he didn't even wander that way, to stumble upon it.
"A basket-pulley system built and left by the U.S. Geological survey high above the River, the basket has been chained to a pole on McCandless’ side by locals to stop people from hunting in the area. Had McCandless found the basket and broken the chain, he would’ve been able to cross even with the river at its higest point. " (Into The Wild)
If he didn't eat the wild potato seeds, he would have survived the 18 days until help came. He would have survived on squirrels and porcupines. The wild potato seeds poisoned him. He died from complications of paralysis. No one should eat wild potato seeds, ever, just to be sure they don't become permanently paralyzed. Young men are the highest risk group. This is new information. No one knew this before. I don't know how to help you understand the article better. You got it very wrong.
Well, you really don't know that he would have survived. He put himself in a precarious position and as others have said, he could have succumbed to any number of other dangers.
He would have survived. As other people have said he could have survived any number of ways (eating squirrels, porcupines) all while enjoying any number of comforts (sitting by the fire, sleeping, reading). You don't really know that he would not have survived.
How can you condemn his post for being so certain while expressing the same (opposite) certainty yourself? You sound a bit ridiculous, obviously no one can be certain of what would have happened had he not eaten the potato seeds. In any case, the article says:
"After subsisting for three months on a marginal diet of squirrels, porcupines, small birds, mushrooms, roots, and berries, he’d run up a huge caloric deficit and was teetering on the brink. By adding potato seeds to the menu, he apparently made the mistake that took him down."
Meaning the only reason he started eating the potato seeds in the first place was because his other sources of nutrition weren't cutting it. So if he hadn't eaten them, he would have at least needed to find another source of calories.
I'm sure that if he did not eat wild potato seeds he would not have died of complications from paralysis. I'm absolutely certain. I know it. I can think of nothing else in his environment that would have poisoned him and made him permanently paralyzed and unable to move or hunt. The other source of calories that he needed was on its way and would have arrived 18 days later. He would have been fine subsisting until then.
However the reason he (and the rest of us) were ignorant of the danger of the potato seed is that the potato seed isn't dangerous to anyone except those in a severe caloric deficit and still undergoing physical exertion.
In other words he applied knowledge gained in one situation (normal persons eating potato seed) to a situation far outside of the experiments that seemed to show no issues with potato seed.
Call it ignorance instead of stupidity if you want, but he's still just as dead (and apparently wouldn't have died had he maintained something other than a caloric deficit which must have eventually led to his death anyways).