Because he’s too smart to be just one person?

Maybe we recognize the contributions and influences of others in his work? Hofstadter is a big time guy, but he's not a self-centered egoist like Kurzweil. He'll regularly talk about the ideas he's bounced around with buddies like Daniel Dennett, etc. I see him as more of a poet than a philosopher or scientist. He is piecing together little bits of truth from many, many, different domains and showing how they reach the same conclusions. There's been nobody like him for over 50 years, so it's very difficult to draw comparisons to others, or even measure the impact of his contributions.

I talked myself into one of his classes as an undergrad and definitely came away with the belief that he was the smartest person I would ever meet. It's been 23 years and that's still true and I'd take a bet today that it will continue to be true for the rest of my life.

Agreed. He's a humble guy, but it's also very humbling being around him and listening him to talk. As I've gotten older, I have to look back at my STEM career in academia and industry, I have to say that he's the last individual that I've really been in awe of.