Whilst the notion of "computers talking to each other without human intervention" sounds like a utopian ideal, I think his method is a recipe for disaster.

The domain of possible consequences of changing protocols and semantics on the fly is hugely complex. What about testing? Are we advocating that we change live systems without tests?

The author writes: "Level 3 introduces discoverability, providing a way of making a protocol more self-documenting."

I reply: The same way good design separates presentation, logic and data, it follows that good protocols separate data from documentation.