How to be around people smarter than myself while working remotely

It is a very good question but it may help if you describe what you currently do and what you want to learn?

More generally ask for travel budget and try to travel as often as you can. Plan ahead at least a few weeks. Setup meetings in advanced with well thought out agenda/expectations. Setup social stuff like dinner or beers. Ask others if they have any interesting meetings you can sit in on. If you don't have any budget start working on justifying it with your leadership.

Consider reaching cold on LinkedIn with no "sales" agenda and explain your interest in reaching out. Pretty sure most people worth adding to your circle would appreciate actually not getting a sales pitch on LinkedIn through a connection request.

I find connection requests that are of a non-sales variety are so rare on that platform these days, it really sticks out when I get one.

Live in a city with good universities to surround yourself with smart people.