Having tested the structural foundations of memetics, there may now be further benefits to be gained by looking at some of its more practical applications. This chapter aims to deepen our understanding of memetics, as well as of science and religion, by examining those cultural areas through its lens.

Science

There are many cultural areas in which knowledge and skills are passed on and develop between “generations”, but perhaps the most notable is science. How does it look, from the perspective of meme theory?

The most obvious starting point is the emergence of novel theories. Innovation, according to meme theory, is due to two factors: recombination and mutation. In recombination, existing memes are appropriately recombined in new situations, creating new ways of thought and novel effects, perhaps as the result of previously recessive memes ‘effects’ being revealed in the reshuffle. This sort of memetic innovation is seen, in science, in the process of extrapolation from existing results to a novel theory. Existing theses are reshuffled – perhaps in the light of new evidence – and this may lead to unforeseen consequences, or even to a fresh hypothesis.

This process cannot, however, account for the “eureka!” phenomenon, where the hypothesis was not itself the direct outcome of previous results. Such instances appear to be more in keeping with the mutational element in memetic variation.