Vector
The sum of all forces acting on an object can be expressed as a single force. This is called the resultant vector of the system. In space, if a particle was created at point A, moved arbitrarily for twenty seconds, then came to a rest at point B, the vector of the particle's life would simply be the vector from A to B.
A parallel can be drawn between the distance a particle travels from birth to death and the distance a person travels from birth do death. If a woman was born in Mexico City, circled the globe multiple times, then took her final breath back in Mexico City, her life distance vector would be zero (or very close to it). The importance of the life distance vector is negligible—the net distance a person travels has little to do with one's lifetime worth.
A lifetime worth vector can be described generally by the distance traveled along a number line, with positive numbers corresponding to good activity and negative numbers corresponding to bad activity. Although a person's life distance vector could be very small, their lifetime worth vector could be much larger.
Worth simply can't be designated by one dimension—it needs to be divided into multiple axes: selfish/selfless, rude/polite, greedy/giving, et cetera. The human worth is often unrepresentable, instead choosing to lurk in the heads and philosophers and mathematicians.
So, can one be accurately summed up by a single vector or magnitude? No. Still more relationships must be determined, like rates of change and interpolations of the vectors; however, if a correlation can be found between one's gene sequence and their final life vectors, it would be possible to accurately determine where someone will die and what his lifetime worth would be.
Would knowing one's own life vectors be helpful or hurtful? One could attempt to dodge death's grip by purposefully changing one's location and worth, but one would ultimately find oneself at the sum of all the forces of one's life. At that point, one would have all the information to find the last value required to mathematically quantify a life: The length of the life vector.
wolfy says:
I think you've made several assumptions which can't be proven but can be disputed.
You use 'lifetime worth vector' to describe the 'worth' of a person. But can you define 'worth' as something beyond the care of humans? We have values we hang on to, including worthiness. But does every being (use the most broad definition you can think of for being) have the same value for worth, and could it be that some beings don't have any value for worth?
You start with stating 'The sum of all forces acting on an object can be expressed as a single force'. So you create a single force, defining it as the vector influencing a persons life, using the term 'lifetime worth vector'. And then you destroy the first statement by claiming that 'Worth simply can't be designated by one dimension'.
I'd say it can be designated by one dimension, that is as accurate as can be. We just can't do it, because we can't define worth to any degree of accuracy. You place other values into worth then I do.
And the last one (I promise). 'if a correlation can be found between one's gene sequence and their final life vectors, it would be possible to accurately determine where someone will die and what his lifetime worth would be', is that so? That presumes that all the information about a persons life are stored in it's genes. All it's information. Including natural disasters, and other external influences. If there is a correlation between a humans lifetime worth and it's genes you can predict some things, like possible causes for a natural death, and a relatively accurate time frame for death.