Personally, I enjoy working with other hackers, but I prefer to socialize/live with mostly artists, musicians or people from some profession that I don't know a lot about so that I can learn from them (living with 2 treasury economists right now). That said, living with another hacker would be awesome!
As for general population, that's what your college buddies/sister/brother/family/normal friends are for. They are easier to find.
You want people who are motivated primarily to make things happen. As with what evandavid said, people with artistic interests or who are engaged with a professional career are good, but anyone with a hobby that's more creative than "going out drinking" and more active than "playing videogames" fits the bill--even that guy who spends thousands of dollars hand-crafting historical costumes and goes to a renaissance faire every other weekend is actually out doing something.
The important part is that, at least in my experience, people who are motivated, creative, and actively engaged with what they're doing will (even if only implicitly) support and encourage that mindset in each other, even with widely divergent interests.
This is the group for our NYC HN meetups. Send a group email out and if you have a chance the meets are every last Thursday of the month. Good luck!