This metaphor compares the complex evolutionary and biological machineries of body, mind, and consciousness with the hardware, software, and hypothetically qualitative inner experiences of a robot.
This robot begins to wonder who he is and why he feels the way he feels. He asks many questions.
Who or what am I? Why am I the way I am? Why do my body, my thoughts, my beliefs, and my emotions change? Why do I want the things that I want? What do I have certain desires and preferences? What should I do? What is moral? What is good? Where am I? Who is my creator? And many other questions...
This hypothetical robot asks questions about 3 main topics of his own hardware, his own software, and his own feelings and qualitative experiences. To answer these questions he needs to understand all that exists out there in W1 (including his own W1 body), the working of W2, and the way W3 experience is created. This robot also faces other difficult questions.
How do fundamental laws of physics determine what I am now?
How did random events throughout evolution shape my ancestors to make me what I am today?
How do the thoughts of people who lived before me (and my culture) affect my software?
How much do indoctrination of parents and friends make me what I am today?
How much did I contribute to what I am today?
In the path of answering these questions the robot discovers how little control he has over how he feels today. He discovers that some deterministic processes have governed his hardware and software so far. In fact, he learns that he has inherited a unique hardware and software that inevitably give rise to the reality he lives in. However, the robot also realizes that if he gain control over his own software (and partly over his own hardware), he can control his own feelings and constructs.
Such an awareness leads him to recreate itself. He become a creature who wants to become the creator of the self and his own personal universe. He wants to break away from being a slave of his hardware and software and become the master and creator of his own personal constructs. Instead of being the slave of its original or acquired software, it rewrites its own codes. However, this self-discovery requires a lot of education, introspection, meditation, and imagination.