It has been suggested that Prothean data recording is highly dependent on a certain point of view, what Carl Jung described as the collective unconscious. The 'cipher' needed to comprehend the images implanted in Shepard's mind is the cultural knowledge of a Prothean: the archetypes, biological instincts, and common experiences universal to the race.

It is essential that we maintain focus on originality as an ethical issue. A broader idea of creativity does not mean that 'anything goes' and sometimes attempts to reuse or remix the work of others becomes an ethical, even a legal, problem […]

to inoculate a tree

Among other particulars which constituted the unfitness of things in Mr Square's opinion, danger and difficulty were two.