Human mind as prediction machine is actually pretty popular theory. See for example “Surfing Uncertainty. Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Cognition” by Andy Clark

https://www.amazon.com/Surfing-Uncertainty-Prediction-Action...

The current leading theories on how the brain works are that yes, they are essentially very impressive prediction machines, which obviously rely on all sorts of pattern matching to make said predictions. You can look up Karl Friston's free energy principle or check this book for more details

https://www.amazon.com/Surfing-Uncertainty-Prediction-Action...

See also the book _Surfing Uncertainty_ (https://www.amazon.com/Surfing-Uncertainty-Prediction-Action...) which convincingly details many brain subsystems as approximating Bayesian updates.