Lateral pressure theory argues that all states can be characterized by different combinations of population, resource and technology—the master variables—and that different combinations yield different state profiles—and different impacts on the natural environment. The formal specification of state profiles in the Table below presents the definitional inequality. For convenience, state profiles are displayed in terms of a "technology-driven" perspective, indicated by the T-variable along the diagonals. But this is not a necessary feature of the theory or of the concept of profiles.