The DNA of mitochondria, chloroplasts, basal granules, and plastids is not the same as the DNA in the nucleus. This implies that a cell, the fundamental building block of all animals, is a fusion of different bacteria-like creatures.
At some time in the past, a group of various bacteria clumped together to form a eukaryotic cell. That eukaryotic cell was dramatically more successful than the individuals composing it and swiftly became the basis of all higher life-forms. Professor Margulis’s once heretical views are now scientific orthodoxy.
The gathering of individual elements into a cooperative whole in the cyber domain can have more sinister overtones. A botnet is a network of computers infected by malware that comes under the control of a single attacking party.