I will not judge a theory I have no insigth into, but from its name ("Cultural
Virus Theory") and from the abstract it sounds like it suffers from the same
limitations as memetics inherently does. Any social theory whose main element is
a virus is intrinsically limited, because ultimately a virus depends on some
greater structure which transcends the virus. This is why I have taken the
liberty to redefine the meme (three new definitions, in fact). With these new
definitions the viral meme becomes more an oddity than the rule and the meme
obtains a more functional role in the mental and social regulatory systems.
(analogous to genomes) The main focus of this theory is not the memes but the
genomic systems which they depend on.
What Ben Cullen seems to be describing is what I call "Social Machines".
These are second order products (self-producing products) of the social
regulatory systems and transcend the meme because they have an insititutional
and cultural embodiment. Such second order products are analogous to cells and
the cellular artefacts. As such, Cullen's focus on artefacts seems sound.
To my knowledge such social machines have also been framed by
autopoiesis theory. I'm not sure if my social machines are autopoietic, but they
are at least analogous since Maturana & Varela built their theory with the
genomic regulatory system (the cell) as the prototype of an autopoietic system.
Onar.