While true, the fact is that our habitats are social systems which encourage or discourage interaction, in different ways. For example, in my years living in s

While true, the fact is that our habitats are social systems which encourage or discourage interaction, in different ways. For example, in my years living in several cooperative houses in Austin (http://iccaustin.coop/ http://iccaustin.coop/) I noticed an interesting difference between the houses which were (subjectively) socially successful or unsuccessful: those which, by nature of their architecture, required one to pass through the common areas in order to reach one's room were much more successful than those whose common areas could be easily circumnavigated. The theory being that random occasional traffic through a place naturally results in random encounters, and the building up of those encounters into more meaningful bonds is simply a matter of time and coincidence. For example, an existing discussion in the living room can attract passer-bys where that discussion becomes the germ of new friendships. If one never has the occasion of coinciding with the others, even if they would get along swimmingly, they likely never would know it. Likewise, polite neighbors may find they have many more commonalities than they know, if only they had the opportunity to discover them.