It sounds like what you want to do is emulate the high dynamic range of the human eye. Search for that term (or HDR) and you'll find plenty of ideas, both here and elsewhere on the net.
In essence, you take two or more photos exposed for different areas of the subject matter and then combine them digitally. Sometimes the effect can look very strange; here is a relatively subtle one from my collection:
What you can't (yet) do is press the shutter once and have the camera take care of getting detail across the whole picture (although it wouldn't surprise me if one or more manufacturers are working on it!).
Wulf