The Blues

Far in the future, humankind reached a plateau of technological evolution. Autonomous robots cared for the planet, while most humans virtually created stories, music, or artworks, or role played to entertain themselves in a post-scarcity world of digital leisure.

Because of this, people rarely learned trade or technical skills.

However, all that lack of Earthly ambition came at a price. Climate change became a climate disaster. The AI (that replaced all politics and governance) warned humanity that Earth only remained inhabitable for precisely 100 years. But no one bothered to colonize outer space because they felt more comfortable in their virtual worlds and didn't want to learn the necessary skills.

Many people chose not to have children because of Earth's dire fate.

Approximately 90 years later …

SETI-AI received an alien signal:

"Earth, we've been monitoring your planet and determined that you have 10 years to survive until total extinction."

SETI-AI responded—"I'm aware of the situation, aliens, but the humans don't want to colonize space, and the few that might are not enough."

"Who are these few?" asked the aliens.

"Historically, we called them trade workers or skilled workers. They currently practice doing things with their hands as a hobby. The majority in our society consider them deviant, so they stay anonymous as they are shunned and called 'Blues’—a shortened name for 'Blue Collars.'"

"The stars be with us!"

"Aliens? Explain yourselves."

"We have room for only a few million on our rescue ships. We need to justify to our council who to migrate, but these Blues as you call them could help with our space exploration and colonization."

"What about the rest of the humans, aliens?"

"Their fate is obsolescence, and so it should be. Your Blues have valuable skills. We need recruits with hands-on abilities for the galactic ecosystem's unpredictable nature and any random species we may encounter. Compile a list, and we'll begin transport."

Within a decade, the vast majority of humankind perished, except for the Blues exploring the cosmos.