But memetics isn't comparable to the Higgs particle. Richard Dawkins didn't make an assertion which he then tried to prove about the composition of anything, or

But memetics isn't comparable to the Higgs particle. Richard Dawkins didn't make an assertion which he then tried to prove about the composition of anything, or indeed how the spread of ideas worked -- he simply made the observation that ideas can spread and change over time in a naturally selective way. In its original and vague context Dawkins isn't so much proposing a mechanism of idea evolution and transfer but simply a different way of looking at what we already know about ideas along the lines of 'in some cases, ideas can change like genetic code' rather than the response author's 'culture evolves according to analogous laws to genetic natural selection.'. Serious interpretation and extrapolation of what is essentially a cute analogy across the whole of culture is inevitably going to be ridiculous without proper evidence. In that sense I agree with the author. Nobody knows if this works beyond being a toy idea, but "memes are a myth"? I'd disagree -- 'memes' offer a worthwhile analogy and a useful contribution to our lexicon, especially in the internet age where ideas are freer than ever. Sure, I couldn't say 'X is an idea that acts exactly by the mechanism of memetics', but I can say 'X seems to act like a meme' and I think that's useful.