Imagine a naval carrier group in the South China Sea. The flagship is destroyed, severing the central command. In a non-devolved system, drones and sensors go blind. With , the remaining destroyers automatically form a mesh. Command devolves to the ship with the highest remaining fuel and ammo. No single loss cripples the network.
The "-v16-" designation in the Delta Zone -v16- -DEVOLUTION- suggests a specific iteration or version of the concept, implying that it has undergone significant revisions and refinements. This particular incarnation of the Delta Zone appears to be linked to the notion of evolution, both in a biological and philosophical sense.
Suddenly, the server racks around him began to scream. Not the whine of overheating processors, but the roar of tearing metal. The room was devolving, too. The sleek, modular walls of the server room began to rust and crumble at an accelerated rate, as if a million years of decay were passing in seconds.