  We argue that the holographic principle may be hinted at already from
low-energy considerations, assuming diffeomorphism invariance, quantum
mechanics and Minkowski-like causality. We consider the states of finite
spacelike hypersurfaces in a diffeomorphism-invariant QFT. A low-energy
regularization is assumed. We note a natural dependence of the Hilbert space on
a codimension-2 boundary surface. The Hilbert product is defined dynamically,
in terms of transition amplitudes which are described by a path integral. We
show that a canonical basis is incompatible with these assumptions, which opens
the possibility for a smaller Hilbert-space dimension than canonically
expected. We argue further that this dimension may decrease with surface area
at constant volume, hinting at holographic area-proportionality. We draw
comparisons with other approaches and setups, and propose an interpretation for
the non-holographic space of graviton states at asymptotically-Minkowski null
infinity.
