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E. Moritz - The Institute for Memetic Research, FL Memetic Science is the name of a new field that deals with the quantitative analysis of cultural transfer. The units of cultural transfer are entities called "memes". In a nutshell, memes are to cultural and mental constructs as genes are to biological organisms. Examples of memes are ideas, tunes, fashions, and virtually any cultural and behavioral unit that gets copied with a certain degree of fidelity. It is argued that the understanding of memes is of similar importance and consequence as the understanding of processes involving DNA and RNA in molecular biology. This paper presents a rigorous foundation for discussion of memes and approaches to quantifying relevant aspects of meme genesis, interaction, mutation, growth, death and spreading processes. It is also argued in this paper that recombinant memetics is possible in complete analogy to recombinant DNA / genetic engineering. Special attention is paid to memes in written modern English.

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