  Human-created engines and evolutionarily optimized molecular motors exhibit
sophisticated design in order to harvest chemical or thermal energy for
generating unidirectional motion. The complexity of these motors makes their
random emergence unlikely. Molecules capable of locomotion, however, seem to be
essential to the creation of the first self-replicator and initiation of
Darwinian evolution, posing a question of the physical mechanism that can
facilitate emergence of directed motion in an isotropic environment. Here we
show a universal thermodynamic mechanism for spontaneous emergence of motor
abilities in a mechanical system. A non-equilibrium system with multiple
degrees of freedom develops symmetry breaking that favors rectification of
environmental thermal fluctuations. The corresponding velocities and its
fluctuations are calculated. Homochirality of living matter is explained as
chirality breaking resulting from the emergence of a motor. Universality of the
results provides a general extension of the Onsager relations to the non-linear
regime.
