[ajarmst]

Precisely what I wanted to say. The 'imagination' they describe is simply reasoning about the future based on current information (with implied uncertainty). Large chunks of any AI textbook are about analyzing future states from present states, planning actions to manipulate that, and the effects of uncertainty on it.

'Imagination' isn't even a good word for it---in conversational English, we often use the word for thinking about models of fictitious states that can't happen, which has subtle value for humans, but not yet for machines.