But over the past few decades, progress in the most reductionist branches of physics has slowed. For example, long-promised “theories of everything,” such as string theory, have not borne significant fruit. There are, however, ways other than reductionism to think about what’s fundamental in the universe. Beginning in the 1980s, physicists (along with researchers in other fields) began developing new mathematical tools to study what’s called “complexity”—systems in which the whole is far more than the sum of its parts.

How about neither? Just because "reductionism" has no clear foundation, that doesn't mean "complexity" is a valid theory either.

I came here to be contrarian and agree with this article... But it's a pretty bad article.

The Atlantic is trash across the board. It's worse than just their liberalism, zionism, genocide...