Here is an interesting interview, from a long time ago, observing that experimentally, it's really waves, but the theorists are obsessed with particles;

http://worrydream.com/refs/Mead%20-%20American%20Spectator%20Interview.html

I would add that waves have two tendencies, either they synchronize, which is centripetal, or they harmonize, which is centrifugal. So one is the basis of nodes and the other is the basis of networks.

Like organisms and ecosystems, or particles and fields. Which is how physics currently divides their areas of study, between particle theory and field theory.