What does Art Hobson mean/explain in his article "There are no particles, there are only fields" regarding the double slit experiment? So I have been reading about fields in physics. I am reading Art Hobson's "There are no particles, there are only fields" published in The American Journal of Physics in 2013, and I am confused by something he states.
On page 14 he writes

"each quantum must carry information about the entire pattern that appears on the screen (in order, e.g., to avoid all the nodes). In this sense, each quantum can be said to be spread out over the pattern. If we close one slit, the pattern shifts to the single-slit pattern behind the open slit, showing no interference. Thus each quantum carries different
information depending on whether two or one slits are open" (Hobson 14).

Can someone please explain what it means that the quanta carry information. And what exactly are nodes and what role do they play?
 A: I can't read Hobson's mind, but I think that when he says that the field carries information about the slits what he means is that whatever you want to calculate about the field depends on the geometry of the slits.   Another way to look at it: given an interference pattern on a screen it is possible to infer what pattern of slits caused it.  The field carries enough "information" to do this.  I can't see the connection to Shannon's information, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's there somewhere.
Nodes are the locations of complete destructive interference.  So a "particle" would have to know not to go there.  In a sense he's answering the question "How does a "particle" know how to avoid landing on a node?"    I put the word particle in quotes in deference to his philosophy that there are no particles.
Editorial comment:  sometimes it's much easier to think of particles rather than waves.  There are people who post here, and who have a lot of reputation points, who argue that the particle picture is more fundamental.  I think it depends on what you are doing.  If you are doing optics, the wave picture is natural.  If you are doing high-energy physics, the particle picture is more natural.  The standard theory that we have today works very well.  It has fields at the bottom of it all.  But I think Feynman (again, I can't read his mind) would say, "Sure, but I can write a theory in which particles are at the bottom of it all."   People who have spent enough years studying physics understand this, and use whatever picture works for them.
One thing is without doubt:  The pictures you carry in your head for "wave" and "particle", the everyday intuitive classical picture,  can't be used to describe what nature has given us.  Whatever is at the bottom of it all is something completely different.  Neither "wave" nor "particle".
A: The double slit experiment with presumed material particles, such as electrons, demonstrates that the inner reality of nature is represented by waves. In quantum field theory (QFT) the fields are regarded as most fundamental than particles, which are described as oscillations (quanta) of the fields.
Note: The nodes refer to the interference pattern.
