I don’t know where you get the idea that memetics doesn’t explain or predict things from.
We know a lot about what factors influence cultural virulence. Marketing and advertising folk make use of that knowledge on a daily basis. They know which jingles are catchy, which catchphrases are likely to be repeated, which images are more likely to be shared—and so on. We know which ideas play well with which other ones well enough to know that we should not target our condom commercials at the catholic demographic.
I don’t know where you get the idea that memetics doesn’t explain or predict things from.
We know a lot about what factors influence cultural virulence. Marketing and advertising folk make use of that knowledge on a daily basis. They know which jingles are catchy, which catchphrases are likely to be repeated, which images are more likely to be shared—and so on. We know which ideas play well with which other ones well enough to know that we should not target our condom commercials at the catholic demographic.
Check out Dan Zarella for some of the recent material: http://danzarrella.com/
He views his work as being memetics: http://danzarrella.com/what-is-a-meme.html