I would like a cure.

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I understand that this topic raises a lot of controversy, and I'm not saying that everybody should be cured.

A lot of people say that Einstein and Gates were autistic; therefore it shouldn't be cured. But Einstein wasn't just talented at physics; he was talented at violin, sailing, and even gave speeches about the wars happening at the time! He was well-rounded in fact. He also engaged in extramartial affairs, which is very un-autistic like. Gates was able to forge many social connections on his way to becoming the founder of Microsoft.

You could say that there are successful people with autism, but I feel a lot of you are taking it to the point where you are saying "autism IS success". There are countless people on this forum that are unemployed, failing school, can't make the necessary social connections, ect, to a degree which EXCEEDS the NT prevalence.

I supported it myself because I was good at math. I thought I would excel in engineering, but engineering also involves concepts, which string the formulas together, and I'm horrible at concepts. It seems that all I can do is compute formulas really fast, which isn't a useful skill in today's world because computers can do it faster.

Additionally, I've been socially isolated most of my life.

From looking up articles in my spare time, I've found out that difficulty breathing through the nose and sleep apnea could be a possible cause of autism. I went to my doctor and he examined me. He said that I was right! I'm being treated for it, and I feel more aware in my daily life.

the high-functioning aspies seem to make it harder for the rest of us, as many in the NT crowd just look at somebody like me and say "peter pan" or "slacker" in the shadow of gates' [et al] functional glory.

You are completely entitled to your opinion about a cure.

Psychologically, an option to improve your situation requires that you accept yourself, warts and all. This is the foundation to finding satisfaction during your life, rather than be in denial or feeling affected. That is why many people here strongly embrace their conditions.
This may not be correct, I am still on a discovery for myself.

If or when there is a cure available off the shelf then the argument will be different, until then, whatever makes you stronger is good.

There is a topic here about clinical trials.

I think the whole 'Autism pride' stuff started because the only real dialogue about autism that was happening wasn't coming from autistic people. It was mostly parents, teachers, doctors, politicians, retired pornstars - anyone BUT an actual autistic person. So the very idea that an autistic person could, not only be coping with their autism, but were actually proud of having it was something people never heard of before. In that sense, this autism pride stuff was quite progressive and helped to establish our agency as self advocates.

However, the dialogue needs to expand. There are people that agree with a lot of the same concerns of groups like ASAN (concerned about social services for the disabled, hate crimes targeted towards the disabled, employment for the disabled, psuedoscience being passed off as a "cure", etc) but don't feel that their disability defines them or even desperately want a cure. these voices need to be heard. Some people in the neurodiversity community will denounce someone such as yourself as having "internalized ableism" just because you don't adopt the exact same worldview. It ends up going from a legitimate social movement to a freaking cult and that is what I despise.

I still ascribe to a lot of the same principles of the movement. Perhaps I don't think my autism describes the totality of me, but it does (inevitably) affect the way I process the world and I can't imagine seeing life from a different lens. Plus, I'm too old for a cure - my brain doesn't have the plasticity to rewire itself the same way a child can so this hypothetical cure would cause greater harm than good for me. But of course it would be awesome to be more able and more independent. Whatever decision is made, people should have the right to live happily, with access to the support they may need in order to keep living that way.

I don't think there needs to be a versus mentality to this.

Addendum: I think, at this rate, it's pointless to debate Einstein or Gates' autism/neurotypicalism because one is dead andwe don't know or have known them personally.

My main concern about a possible "cure" is that there will be a lot of pressure for Aspies to undergo treatment, and not everybody will want to. I don't want to be "cured". This is who I am, and after 25 years I've finally come to embrace that.

If I were to take this "cure", I imagine I'd find myself in an unfamiliar world, wondering who I am again.

My issue is this... Even if we have a cure... as adults with autism... we've already solidified our perceptions, processing and communications... Even if we were cured, as creatures of habit... we'd be no better off...

A cure would only be beneficial for Autistic Spectrum individuals during their formative stages.