You're not a noob :P trust me.
In-fact, it's a very curious and good question.
I'll try to put this in my best words:
A RuneScape auto bot, is meant for you to let it do it's own actions for you.
While you sit back, go play some COD maybe or do something productive... The bot is doing whatever you set it up to do:
(example: Woodcutting, Fishing, Mining) are the common skills people bot on.
Although, a couple years ago, last I heard RuneScape disabled or shut down using bots.
I haven't heard they have came back, although I could be wrong.