I always envied Faust; the temptation of being able to instantly realize knowledge in all disciplines is something that I would find very difficult to resist, regardless of the consequences. (As Bender says to the Robot Devil, "Hmm. I forgot you could tempt me with things I want.") I think that this is because I've worked so hard to gain what little knowledge I have that the promise of knowing so much more with little additional effort has just become more alluring over time.

More to the point of what you were talking about: I'm not sure why hyperbolic discounting is emphasized over exponential here. A quick look at Wikipedia confirms that exponential decays faster. (In fact, unless I'm misunderstanding hyperbolic discounting, the integral doesn't converge, you need to use exponential discounting.) I wouldn't discount exponentially, so I personally would not take the offer if thinking clearly. But if Omega caught me in an excitable moment, maybe after reading an Iain Banks novel, I would be sorely tempted.