أجزاء الآلة تعمل معًا بأقصى قدر من التعاون لتحقيق نتيجة مشتركة، لكنها لا تشكّل جماعة. أما إذا كانت جميعها تدرك الغاية المشتركة وتهتم بها، بحيث تضبط نشاطها الخاص في ضوئها، فستشكّل عندئذ جماعة. غير أن ذلك يقتضي التواصل؛ فكل منها يجب أن يعرف ما يسعى إليه الآخر، وأن تكون لديه وسيلة لإطلاعه باستمرار على غايته وتقدمه.

“The parts of a machine work with a maximum of cooperativeness for a common result, but they do not form a community. If, however, they were all cognizant of the common end and all interested in it so that they regulated their specific activity in view of it, then they would form a community. But this would involve communication. Each would have to know what the other was about and would have to have some way of keeping the other informed as to his own purpose and progress.”John Dewey — The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Volume 9: 1916, Democracy and Education (2008)