Specialized inference engines as precursors of creative imagination?

We usually consider imagination in terms of its high-end, creative products such as literature, religion, and the arts. To understand the evolution of imaginative capacities in humans, it makes more sense to focus on humble imaginations that are generally automatic and largely unconscious, and help us produce representations of, for example, what people will say next, that people exist when out of sight, or what aspects of our environment are potentially dangerous. These examples suggest that there may not be one faculty of imagination but many specialized 'what if inferential systems in human minds.