Equality doesn't have to mean everybody is exactly the same. It can also "simply" mean that when you argue that 1+1=2, it holds the exact same weight as when someone who is prettier or richer does. That is not a hindrance to progress, that is progress, and enables progress in turn.
The alternative is not being able to say that 1+1=2, or that Earth moves around the sun, or that mass surveillance and blowing up kids with drones are terrorism and not fighting terrorism, when some interests more powerful than you would rather not have you say it. We've been there, we are there, it sucked, it sucks. The costs of too much inequality outweigh the benefits; at least if you're concerned with intellectual honesty and human dignity over bling. If you just see that "these pyramids couldn't have built without slaves, and pyramids are so super shiny and useful!" your mileage might vary. But I don't see it that way.
And although I don't even see why evolution has to be the ultimate value (i.e. we have no proof that achieving star faring civilization is somehow "better" than ameoba swimming around in water, we just have our bias in the matter)... extreme inequality would mean one entitity exploiting and controlling all others: no more competition, and therefore no more evolution. So I guess the desirabe state is somewhere between everything and everyone being exactly the same, and one subset owning everything and forcing it into paralysis to fortify its own position of power.
The alternative is not being able to say that 1+1=2, or that Earth moves around the sun, or that mass surveillance and blowing up kids with drones are terrorism and not fighting terrorism, when some interests more powerful than you would rather not have you say it. We've been there, we are there, it sucked, it sucks. The costs of too much inequality outweigh the benefits; at least if you're concerned with intellectual honesty and human dignity over bling. If you just see that "these pyramids couldn't have built without slaves, and pyramids are so super shiny and useful!" your mileage might vary. But I don't see it that way.
And although I don't even see why evolution has to be the ultimate value (i.e. we have no proof that achieving star faring civilization is somehow "better" than ameoba swimming around in water, we just have our bias in the matter)... extreme inequality would mean one entitity exploiting and controlling all others: no more competition, and therefore no more evolution. So I guess the desirabe state is somewhere between everything and everyone being exactly the same, and one subset owning everything and forcing it into paralysis to fortify its own position of power.