Observers, Alpha Parameters, and the Hartle-Hawking State

It has recently been understood from several points of view that the Hilbert space of quantum gravity in a closed universe has dimension one.  It has also been argued that this problem can be ameliorated by explicitly including the observer in the fundamental laws of physics.  In this talk I will explain how this proposal is related to the Hartle Hawking state and alpha parameters of Coleman, Giddings, Strominger, Marolf, and Maxfield.  I will also point out a new tension between the gravitational path integral and standard assumptions about the landscape of string theory.  Based on work with Ying Zhao.