2032: Neurologists discover that the human brain can have a verifiable effect on the physical world.
2036: Artificial Neural Circuits (ANC) are created to mimic the neural patterns which are known to produce these effects.
2047: ANC Implants are approved by the FDA. These ANCI can be placed near the area of the brain known to produce similar effects and will amplify the world-altering properties of that area.
2049: An official method of measuring and describing the various types of mental abilities granted by ANCI is created.
2050: The first factories open which use ANC and ANCI to operate nanites, as well as micro and nano-scopic assemblers for producing high-precision components.
2052: The first Mars colony is founded.
2055: Organic ANCIs are grown, first in a lab, but later directly in the skull. They handle less energy than machine versions, but require no maintenance and slowly improve over time.
2056: Two twin brothers manage to link their ANCI together for communications, despite being separated by hundreds of kilometers, far beyond the Telepathic range of ANCIs. Scientists find that the communication occurs faster than the speed of light, possibly making use of quantum entanglement or quantum tunneling. Six months later, on company builds ANCs that can send data thousands of times faster than the speed of light, but only if they have a mind to coordinate the information transfer. This is used to communicate with Mars colony.
2058: The United Earth Military uses the FTL Communications ANC technology to build FTL sensors. They detect life outside of the solar system, but don't disclose this fact to the public. All non-military models are limited to a distance of a few AU to prevent public knowledge of alien life.
2062: ANC Telekinesis technology advances to the point that it can be used for interplanetary travel.
2067: ANC Warp drive technology is created. It is used to send trade and colony ships throughout the solar system.
2071: ANC Technology has been incorporated into most Earth technology, though most only require it for control, not for basic operations. A promising young upstart company locates and repairs the defect the military built into FTL sensor technology, and detect an alien craft approaching the system. They go public, despite military orders not to. A week later, the ship arrives in the outer system.
2072: The Alien ship attacks and captures Pluto outpost. It enslaves the people there and the Keiper belt miners by forcing them to destroy their FTL drives or be destroyed. The aliens give them high efficiency antimatter production and better antimatter storage technology, and forces them to use all of the fission reactors they can to produce antimatter. Once it is refueled, the alien ship moves on to Saturn, where it faces much greater resistance, but captures the facility. They give them the same technology they gave Pluto outpost, and force them to use their fusion generators to produce antimatter to refuel the ship. Someone managed to transmit the new technology to Earth, which used it to enhance their own ships
2073: The Aliens attack Jupiter. The human race had drastically geared up war production since they attacked Pluto, and manages to hold them off for a few hours. They eventually capture Jupiter and drive the humans into the asteroid belt. The aliens do the same thing to Jupiter that they did to Saturn and the humans regroup around the asteroid bases, building several additional hidden bases. Over the next few years they manages to halt the alien ship's advancement through guerrilla tactics. Earth, Mars, Venus, and the Asteroid colonies combine their forces and work together to keep the Aliens at bay.
2076: A combined human fleet manages to trap the ship and destroy it, though they lose hundreds of ships in the process. While digging through the wreckage, they discover something startling. Aside from a few control interfaces, the alien ship didn't have any ANCs. Humans try to reverse the alien technologies, but find that most of it is fundamentally incompatible with Mental Technology. No bodies were found, and computer files were too heavily encrypted to access them. A few weeks later another alien ship arrives and reconquers the territory of its former ally.
2077: The combined human fleet launches the Marco Polo, the first human ship to travel outside of the solar system (presumably). It incorporates the latest in ANC technology, including a quantum tunneling drive, the only drive known by humans which can outrun the alien's warp drive technology. Its mission is to find compatible technology and allies to fight off the alien ship.

ANC technology runs off of electricity. Most of the time this comes from the local power grid or a local generator. In the case of ANCIs, it comes from the body of the user. The strength of an ANC or an ANCI is dependent on the mental strength of the user, the person's skill with that ability, and the amount of energy that is used, and the concentration of the user. When an ANC is used for control, the person's abilities can enhance the performance of the device in ways similar to the persons abilities. For example, a Telekinetic enhances engines, including FTL, a telepath enhances the range or bandwidth of comms and sensors, an electrokinetic enhances the efficiency of the power generator, grid, or other device. The more strongly you use your abilities and the more you concentrate, the more mental fatigue the use of abilities causes. The energy for you abilities, however, comes from your body if you use an ANCI and the electrical grid if you use an ANC device.
Mental abilities come in various types, such as Telekinesis, Telepathy, Energetics (Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis, etc.), Enhancement (Healing, super strength), etc. Most people make use of only one or two abilities to build up more skill in those areas.
All ship's systems which include ANCs have a built in artificially grown chimp brain that has been enhanced with human glial cells, on par with a human with an IQ of 60 in terms of raw power.

[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/59600/posts/ooc]The Casual Interest Check[/url]