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Comment by billybob255 | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't really invalidate them, it says that if you eat the seeds while malnourished the ODAP can kill you. It doesn't mention anything about him dying in an unforeseen accident, he went into the Alaskan bush unprepared and died of malnutrition. If he brought a map he could've walked to safety when he started to realize his plight.

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>he went into the Alaskan bush unprepared and died of malnutrition. If he brought a map he could've walked to safety when he started to realize his plight.

Did you actually read the article? That's not what it says. It suggests he became paralyzed by a neurotoxin, an event which no one could have foreseen at the time. Having a map wouldn't have cured his paralysis. I'm not even convinced he was lost.

The neurotoxin killed him in his weaken state. A weakened state he found himself in because he was starving already, basically from rabbit-starvation. Because he was unprepared.

Yes, had he not eaten the seeds, he (possibly) would still be alive... but he still would have been an idiot.

> Because he was unprepared.

Only if you stretch the term "unprepared" beyond what people understand the Park Ranger to mean.

Maybe "less than optimally prepared" for the scope of what he was trying to do, but "unprepared" is not fair. "Unprepared" basically puts him in the same category as people who die from hypothermia because they wear cotton clothes.

I don't think "sufficiently prepared that you are not operating at a significant caloric deficient for prolonged periods of time" is a high standard. He was in the same category of people who fail to dress properly. Those people have insufficient clothing, and he was unable to obtain sufficient food. This was all before the potato seeds became an issue.

The article specifically states that ODAP bears no no risk of toxicity unless someone is suffering from malnutrition, stress, or acute hunger.

No one should ever eat ODAP. It is too risky. Now the world knows (and in a very high profile way). No one should ever have to ask themselves if they are well-fed enough to eat wild potato seeds. You should never eat them.

McCandless had a map (though given that Krakauer himself perpetrated the myth, you can't really be faulted for thinking otherwise). Wikipedia, as well as the movie and a variety of primary sources make it clear that one was found among his possession. It's also possible, if not likely, that the onset of lathyrism left him no window for realizing his plight and walking out - the damage was irreversible at the time of ingestion (I'm admittedly sketchy on how fast the onset actually is - presumably it varies a lot).

Personally, I find the details completely beside the point. McCandless sacrificed everything to test his philosophical conjecture and I have nothing but respect for that. I honestly would've thought there'd be more empathy for it here.

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