Hominids were in deep trouble - not-quite-apes not fit to survive in the trees or on the plains because of our physical forms. We had our intelligence and the dexrerity of our newly-evolved hands, but these were unhelpful until we acquired imagination. The ability to visualise something that didn't exist - a spear, a club, a scraper or cutter- the intelligence to find objects in the world that could make the parts, and the dexterity to make what they'd imagined real. If the imagination had remained at that practical, mechanistic level, then we'd still be hunter-gatherers in harmony with our environment. Buit imagiation got over-developed. That's what comes between us and Nature.