i think op is making a good point - there is nothing more to science than computed minus measured equals error

what a scientist does is to make a model which is the computed than she makes measurements and obtains errors - the error or the residuals - is the knowledge

people may call computeds -theory -model -hypothesis -framework and similar words but the process is always the same

for instance ptolemaic theory is a mathematical framework that results in very good residuals which means that ptolemaic model saves the naked eye observations very well

if as the op writes an experiment generates -40 terabytes of raw data per second- you still have to model it and obtain residuals

but the real interesting problem facing contemporary science is that now what is -computed- and what is -measured- are no longer clearly separated