Interesting, but, no doubt, unoriginal thoughts

OK, after having been put in my unoriginal place by my brother, I will muse on, in an assumedly unoriginal way. A few recent thoughts, nonetheless. This is on the sensory field that surrounds us. In the old days (let's say 100 years ago to avoid any nitpicking) people's sensory perceptions came at them from the place that they were in. If they were traveling they were surrounded by the sounds that were present in the places that they passed through. If they were out for a walk, or running (probably not so much of that back then) then it would be the sounds of the field, the forest, the city streets, or whatever that filled their ears. If they were were working, it was the sounds of their place of work that surrounded them. Now, with ipods, radio, sterios etc. we can replace the "natural" sounds with our own. Perhaps a better way of putting this would be that we can replace sounds of the places we are in with sounds of our preference - usually music. So, why not visuals also (perhaps this is already beginning to happen with the videos in cars, planes, and trains?). However, why should it stop with movies - why not a full visual display to replace whatever it is that actually surrounds you at whatever moment. With the advent, for example, of self-navigating automobiles the windshield could become a kind of visual screen that could display whatever scene you chose: nature, photographs, movies, paintings, . . . anything. And why stop there, why not replace the tactile sensations that are so unforgetable - the impressions of the seat you are on, for example. Replace them with the most satisfying tactile sensations that you can imagine. Then scent and taste and we will have really entered the virtual world that has little if any relationship to the actual one that surrounds us. This probably would not make any difference because the only real world that you ever live in is the one in your head anyway! OK, there probably has already been a movie on this or some article, so Big Frank is not claiming any originality just marking this as an idea worth contemplating.