[deleted]
Dear Michael,
You might find the following approach interesting as regards some of the very thought-provoking questions you pose in your essay.
So, you could start with the things that we do know about, i.e. the things we perceive, such as colours and shapes. Then think about the qualities they share. Let's say they share the qualities of amount (or quantity), position, direction (if moving) and change. If it was then possible to build a theory of physics out of just these things, then it would be a theory about things that we do know about.
Rather surprisingly it would appear possible to do just that, build a theory out of these things alone; but not just any old theory - the theory of Quantum Mechanics. This suggests that Quantum Mechanics is really about things we know about. Of course, this is carefully disguised: most people would say Quantum Mechanics is about photons and electrons and 'physical things' and not about the quantity and change of the things we perceive.
This theory is itself is just a list of instructions (an algorithm). But the discovery of that list of instructions is the discovery of something we didn't know about the world.
What do you think? If you interested there are some more details in my essay.
All the best,
David